Giant Eland in US-Zoos

Z

Zebraduiker

Well-Known Member
Hi Folks,
I need some informations to the population of giant eland in the USA.

ISIS shows only 17.22 eastern giant eland at 6 locations. So is a new holder, San Francisco with 1.0. Does anybody knows when this male has arrived there, how old it is and where it came from ? What are the plans for this species at SF, will they get more males for beginning with giant eland and maybe they will get females later, or will they keep a bachelor group ?

What happend to the giant eland at Cincinnati, ISIS is not showing them for Cincy, but I'm sure, they are still there.

At the end of 2003, there were 30.39 giant eland in the USA, so what happend to the population ? There are problably other Us-Zoos, which are interested in keeping giant eland ?
 
I just visited Cincinnati Zoo in May of 2008. There is no Giant Elands in the exhibit where they were originally displayed. In the 90s, they were doing well. But I don't know what happen to the group.
 
The gene pool of giant eland in the US must be shrinking now, with no new imports since the mid 80's when Cincinnati and L.A imported animals, i'm guessing here but would the only chance of an import be from Pretoria zoo, surely their females are not related to any north American stock.

Off thread here, but giant eland, there is a species i could see coming to the bioparc Valencia, just a thought.
 
The Columbus Zoo's African Savannah opens in 2012 and I know the keepers wanted to bring in Giant Elands from the very beginning. I think the reason was specifically because the US population was shrinking. I hope they stick to the plan.
 
The (recent) history of giant eland in North America has been highly political. IAE imported a group and retained partial ownership of the animals when transferred to other institutions. The loan agreements were rather complicated, which lead to some difficulties moving animals around.

For quite some time, Cincinnati was the primary holder of this species. However, their breeding bull died in April 2002 and they had some difficulty acquiring a new male (it took over 3 years). They had no successful births after 2002, even with a new male arriving. Of the 39 animals listed on ISIS, only a handful show direct linkages back to Cincinnati. Most of the giant eland left the zoo in autumn 2007, and the yard now appears to be occupied by bongo.
 
The San Francisco bull arrived May 2007 from SDWAP, where he was born in 1999. As Ungulate said, the population is mainly owned by IAE. There are many zoos that just wont work with the Hunt Brothers (IAE), because of the complications with loans. In 2009, there will be a population managment meeting for Giant Eland to determine the future of the species in the US.

For the US population there are 7 institutions: White Oak, SDWAP, African Safari Wildlife Park, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

As for the Cincinnati animals, I know they did relocate their animals to their off site property. As of August 2008 they had 1.1. Im not sure about the male's whereabouts, but the female arrived at White Oak about a month ago.

At White Oak, we have three herds totaling over 20 Giant Eland. This year we had four births.
 
@kiang.
The founder population of giant eland in the Usa isn't that small. IAE has imported in 1986 4.6, one male died shortly after the arrival, the other animals were send to Cincinnati (1.3) and L.A (2.3) All these animals have bred successfully. Cincinnati has bred 27,22 giant eland til the end of 2001 !

So that very sad, that this zoos has stopped the keeping of giant eland.

Okapikpr, do you know, what is planned for them at San Francisco ? The group at White Oak is very impressive.
Does anybody has any pictures of the exhibit at San Francisco, I think, it is the formely giraffe exhibit ?
 
I dont know about San Francisco's future for the Giant Eland. Im sure it will decided next year. Most likely more males to create a bachelor herd or a female to pair the male with (like at Houston).
 
Ituri said:
No, that is definitely not true. They have common eland only.
Click to expand...

The safari drives said they had patersons eland, he also said that they were the largest spieces of eland, so i presume they are giant eland
 
Common Eland are larger than Giant Eland. Giant Eland have various features, including a more prominent dewlap, larger horns, and richer color that make it appear larger.
 
Besides Cincinnati Zoo, Los Angeles Zoo, and African Safari Wildlife Park, these are the American zoos that had Giant elands (Taurotragus derbianus) in the past:

Brookfield Zoo
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo
and
Oakland Zoo
 
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