Elephants of the UK!

Elephas

Elephas

Active Member
5+ year member
Hello everyone here is the information for all the elephants in the United Kingdom at this present day:

View attachment Elephant UK list.pdf

In this present day there are 65 elephants in UK in zoos and safaris 32 of which are African elephants (Loxodonta Africana) and 33 are Asian elephants (Elephas Maximus)

The zoos and safaris which house the elephants are:
Chester zoo
Howletts wild animal park
Port Lympne reserve
ZSL Whipsnade zoo
Woburn Safari park
Knowsley safari park
Belfast zoo
Paignton zoo
Blackpool zoo
Blair drummond
Noah's Ark zoo
Colchester zoo
Twycross zoo
West Midlands safari park
Longleat safari park

I hope you appreciate the work!
 
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I didn't realise so many places kept them! Thanks for the information.
 
Nice bit of research there Elephas, its handy to see at a glance information like this. :)
I reckon I would have had a guesstimate at around '50 odd' elephants in the UK before reading this, so a little higher than I would have estimated.


Only odd and even toed ungulates to go now......:D
 
Thank you Macaw16 I just remembered she is actually, thanks for reminding me she has just had a new house constructed
 
Maya and Thi hi way at Chester didn't they come to London direct from Burma and from London to Chester?
 
Maya came from India and was housed in other zoo before settling in Chester and Thi Hi Way came from Bruma and was housed in a few zoo before she could be housed permanently which was at London zoo but she didn't like the confined zoo so she was loaned to Chester where she remains today.
 
Elephas said:
Maya came from India and was housed in other zoo before settling in Chester and Thi Hi Way came from Bruma and was housed in a few zoo before she could be housed permanently which was at London zoo but she didn't like the confined zoo so she was loaned to Chester where she remains today.
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didnt like the confined zoo interesting choice of words , i know the reasons why Thi was moved to Chester and that certrainly wasnt it
 
How about the temple elephant in Wales? That's an Asian elephant that isn't on your list... But I suppose technically it isn't in a zoo so doesn't really need to be featured in your list, I'm just being pedantic! :p
 
Great job Elephas. I think Maya and Thi (and also Azizah) were Dutch dealer Van den Brink imports from Burma, but I'll have to dig out my old Elephant Keepers workshop proceedings from the 80's and 90's to check. Problem is they're buried in the loft.......
 
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wibbs said:
i know the reasons why Thi was moved to Chester and that certrainly wasnt it
Click to expand...

Maybe you can explain further?

At the time she was moved, there was a large notice in the Casson Pavilion done with sketches in cartoon style, explaining why and how she was being moved to Chester. The reason given on that was connected with her stress or nervousness in a confined area and that she was being moved where she would have more space. I remember that's definately what it said.
 
Thi had a bad habit of running away when she was walked around the zoo. She would get 'spooked' and then do a runner. Or something would change on her route so she would stop, become glued to the spot and then not move!! The head keeper was probably least fond of her of the four elephants at London at the time, and the zoo had to cut costs by loosing at least one elephant at the time - so Thi was chosen to go to Chester. The interpretation that followed about her being 'highly strung' was true, but other factors also contributed to her leaving. Having Said all of that, the whole keeper team at the time were sad to see her go.
 
Great stuff Elephas! Stuff like this seems really hard to find. Well done and thanks, the work is very much appreciated. Keep it coming.
 
Thank you Macaw16 always nice to have a little help with being up to date! I'll probably have to have a think about rhinos I normally do elephant based forums but rhinos could widen my path! And no worrys Daniel always nice to hear positive comments!
 
This is a great piece of researh Elephas well done!
Is there an updated version you can post which includes the death of kruger at port lympne and the deaths bala and hari at chester. Also the recent birth at chester and anything else I may have missed out on?
 
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