Do I understand correctly: San Diego Zoo has built a new (ugly) Elephant exhibit to be able to breed, has a bull in breeding age but was not able to get at least one cow in breeding age from another zoo or even from an Asian orphant camp (yet)? - Hmh,.....
They actually never built this with breeding motives and they don't intend to try and breed anytime soon. They don't have room for babies, SDWAP moved the elephants into the old yard just to accommodate their additions. After this generation of elephants, they'll probably become interested in breeding them again.
I don`t think the SDZ built the enclosure with the intention to breed. They built it to provide the old elephants (from both the safari park and the zoo) with better conditions. But you`re correctly asking why Ranchipur is being kept without females in breeding age for decades now. Any more questions why there arre so few asian elephant birth in the SSP?!
Do I understand correctly: San Diego Zoo has built a new (ugly) Elephant exhibit to be able to breed, has a bull in breeding age but was not able to get at least one cow in breeding age from another zoo or even from an Asian orphant camp (yet)? - Hmh,.....
@Otter Lord and Yassa: Thank you for clarifying. But why San Diego did not had the intention to create a facility where they are able to breed ASIAN Elephants (too)? As far as I know, the SSP-area is not overrun by births of Asian Elephants in the past. And I think that when you invest that much money in a new exhibit as San Diego does, then it should contain facilities for breeding and not only for giving more space to both species (which is a good thing of course, no question).
@reduakari: You are very welcome. It seems that we are brothers in mind, aren't we?
Yes, the Asian SSP is not looking that great, especially compared to the African Elephant SSP. Elephant Odyssey is built with the best facilities for caring for elephants and elephant babies. Its not the facilities that is the problem, its because they have a herd that has no experience with baby elephants. The zoo definitely wants to breed their elephants or future elephants especially with the crowds and dollars they can bring in with baby elephants.
You all in California are lucky. The tusks on the bulls in California are amazing!
Ohio's two breeding bulls, Coco (39) [Columbus], and Sabu (22) [Cincinnati] do not have tusks any where near as impressive as Ranchipur's or Billy's. Of Ohio's two bulls Coco is the more impressive, imo. Coco, though he does have stubby tusks (Sabu's are longer), is a beautiful bull. He isn't as "buff", if you will, as Ranchipur or Billy, but he's quite tall and lanky and just seems to walk with a certain elegance or purpose. To get a glimpse of him is hard to do,though. You have to make sure you're at the elephant exhibit at just the right times. He's only out in the main yard for short amounts of time throughout the day during the operating hours on busy days because of his bad habits of throwing things at visitors. There have been several incidents where he has injured guests with rocks and other objects.
They actually never built this with breeding motives and they don't intend to try and breed anytime soon. They don't have room for babies, SDWAP moved the elephants into the old yard just to accommodate their additions. After this generation of elephants, they'll probably become interested in breeding them again.
Yes, the Asian SSP is not looking that great, especially compared to the African Elephant SSP. Elephant Odyssey is built with the best facilities for caring for elephants and elephant babies. Its not the facilities that is the problem, its because they have a herd that has no experience with baby elephants. The zoo definitely wants to breed their elephants or future elephants especially with the crowds and dollars they can bring in with baby elephants.
Would it mean: Facilities for breeding are there (in San Diego ZOO). Breeding is on the schedule for the future, but with the current herd not possible?
If so, then it is okay and I say sorry about that point. Then there is just the point left, why the breeding potencial of the bull was not (or not that much as possible) used so long (and is still not used?).
Sorry, I did contradict myself a little there. What I mean is that the zoo didn't build EO so that the current elephants could breed and they don't plan to breed the elephants. I believe that Cha-Cha is the only female elephant with the possibility of becoming pregnant, but it is rare at her age because she has no prior experience. I think the zoo does give some of the elephants birth control pills to control their cycles too. I don't know why they have not bred Rachipur, but perhaps they did not want to separate him from his females by sending him elsewhere or they did not have enough room to bring in breeding females.
I asked a keeper if were any plans to breed Ranchipur her comment was "He tries all the time." Seriously she also said that he is a grandfather and that his hips are painful so there are no plans to bring in a new female for him. Also, isn't there some concern about breeding Asian elephants when they house African elephants also? We have Tembo who is a female African elephant.
