3 Asian Elephant births in 3 weeks

M

Michelle

Member
We have just had our third baby elephant born in 3 weeks. Well actually its our fourth if you count the elephant we sent to Cologne Zoo 8 months ago who has just given birth. We now have 9 mothers and babies together in the nursery under 2 years of age. That brings our total of successful births to 28 in 7 years. I dont know of anyone in the world who is breeding with this much success. If someone knows of somewhere that is breeding more please let me know. What I find interesting is that zoos are not knocking down our door to find out what we are doing right.
 
if zoos are so bad why send elephants there?
but seriously, do you publish your husbandry data in international journals, etc? are there any particular zoos your organisation has forged links with? the sanctuary should be spreading the word, and congratulations on the briths.
(not knocking your institution here either, im asking out of coriousity. any pics?)
 
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As far as i know zoo's are having no problems getting elephants to breed. The only reason why zoo's don't do well with breeding elephants is because they don't have room or a facility for a full-grown male. Doesn't take an expert on elephant breeding to know that without a male elephant, breeding efforts will be quite low...

Still congratulations, i don't know if there's a zoo that's doing better with them but as far as i know in Europe, Emmen is top breeder with around 15 succesfull births...

What are you going to do with all those elephants though? As far as i know there are still a lot of elephants in south-east Asia that need a decent place to live, so occupying space with baby elephants seems at this point a bit pointless, but that just could be me...
 
Michelle said:
We have just had our third baby elephant born in 3 weeks. Well actually its our fourth if you count the elephant we sent to Cologne Zoo 8 months ago who has just given birth. We now have 9 mothers and babies together in the nursery under 2 years of age. That brings our total of successful births to 28 in 7 years. I dont know of anyone in the world who is breeding with this much success. If someone knows of somewhere that is breeding more please let me know. What I find interesting is that zoos are not knocking down our door to find out what we are doing right.
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It sure is a remarkable result, and only Zoos keeping almost hundred elephants (like you) could of course compete...

Most Zoos keep below ten elephants, so the statistical outcome can never be even. With three births in 3 weeks, however, You must be a record breaker. Congratulations!!
 
jwer said:
What are you going to do with all those elephants though? As far as i know there are still a lot of elephants in south-east Asia that need a decent place to live, so occupying space with baby elephants seems at this point a bit pointless, but that just could be me...
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um, and what are we going to do with all those tigers, gorillas and elephants our zoos engage in "conservation breeding" programs for?
 
patrick said:
um, and what are we going to do with all those tigers, gorillas and elephants our zoos engage in "conservation breeding" programs for?
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Keep the asian elehant zoo population genetically healthy and stocked without having to import more animals from their native coutry?

Considering the room most zoo's have and are building and considering the elder age of many of the zoo's elephants they have at the moment, there's no need for a breeding stop just yet...
 
Every additional elephant is a huge cost to the zoo, so i think many zoos aren't too eager to breed THAT many elephants. They don't come cheap, not to mention space constraints. Sending them to other zoos cost a hefty sum as well. So zoos are careful about breeding them. Its a matter of desire more so than ability to breed them in my opinion.

But of course captive breeding must still continue to maintain genetic diversity.
 
im pretty confident the EEP coordinators for the asian elephant know what theyre doing. ;) the number of births, transfers, growing longeivity, declining infant mortaility and growing herd sizes to me indicate a species which is well on the way to being managed alot more sensitively and succesfully than it has been in the past. more work has to be done, but if european zoos can do it and get better at it, given their climate, theres hope for aussie and american zoos too.
 
Elephant Pictures

I forgot to put our website on so you can look at the photos.
www.elephantstay.com We have not had the time in the past to write papers as we are too busy doing it. However the philosophy is simple happy healthy elephants breed and we have the expertise to ensure this. We are happy to share our expertise with anyone who asks.
 
We are not a zoo we are in Thailand building a sustainable future for Thai elephants. We offer an Elephantstay experience for people to come and have a hands on experience with elephants and the income retires old elephants. elephantstay.com Also at the time of the last 3 births we have had people here doing the Elephantstay experience we. They have been able to witness the births and then play with the babies the following days until they depart to continue on their travels.
 
do you do villoies stuff

i am hoping to maybe travel to thailand next year to work with friends of asia, in a santuary up notrth i beleive, a ele stop over for a month would be nice
 
Zoo_Boy have you checked out our website? What our eles need is an income you are welcome to come and do the experience. People who come to Elephantstay are able to do a hands on experience which you can not get anywhere else. We have elephants from 5 days to 70 years old. We always have babies with their mothers also we have bulls trained to do mock battles. No one is doing the training we are doing here.
 
sounds kool, but expensive, i went all trhough ya site last night, seems very kool and u do good work
 
Looks like you are doing some real good work there, do you have any pics of your main breeding bulls and who would be your largest male.
 
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