African Elephants in Europe 2023

H

Hyak_II

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
New year, and time for a new thread!

2022 was a fairly quiet year for African Elephants in Europe. There were three births, all of which were fairly genetically valuable animals:

Bull Kibo out of sire Jack and dam Kwanza at Sosto
Cow Mali out of sire Tooth and dam Tika at Wuppertal
Cow Makena out of an unknown sire and dam Matla at Biopark Valencia

There were also deaths, of course. Fortunately most were older, non breeding animals, but still very sad loses all the same:

34 year old Flora at Planete Sauvage
44 year old N’Yoka at Knuthenborg Safari Park
45 Year old Kibo at Biopark Valencia
2 year old Tsavo at Wuppertal
40 year old Jenny at Pakawi Park

2023 is shaping up to be a fairly quiet but productive year, with 3 known pregnancies expected in the year, Sabie at Wuppertal (sire Tooth) is due in early-mid 2023, Pina Nessie at Beekse Bergen (sire Yambo) is due towards and end of 2023, and Heri at Basel (sire Tooth) is due at the very end of 2023 (although hers could possibly go through to early 2024). I suspect, but cannot confirm, that a few more cows are pregnant and due in 2023, but only time will tell!

In addition to starting the new thread off with a recap, I’ll include some news too. For the very first day of the year, the Erfurt Zoo celebrated the 52nd “birthday” of cow Safari. While I normally wouldn’t include birthdays in a news thread, along with starting the year off on a happy note, this is also rather impressive news, as, to date, very few African elephants have made it past 50 years of age, let alone staying in as good as condition as Safari, who is still spry, active, socially engaged, and more than capable of laying down and getting up with ease. Interestingly, two other 50+ year old African Elephants in the European population share a common link with Safari, both 53 year old Aja at Rhenen and 52 year old Mondula at Blair Drummond Safari Park were imported with Safari and spent the first 20+ years of their lives at Erfurt together. One can’t help but wonder if some aspect of their husbandry set them up for such success, or it just happens to be a coincidence. Regardless, it’s very nice to have these older ladies still with us!

See more at the link here
 
Lovely news about another new calf, and even better that she’s a little cow!

Just a shame Yambo was the sire, of the four potential breeding age bulls there at the time, he was the most related to Infinata, of course. (Jums and Junmar being totally unrelated to her, Martin being a half nephew, but Yambo being a half sibling).
 
Safaripark Beekse Bergen is to expand the elephant enclosure, a building permit was recently applied for. The project is called "Elephant Valley". This valley will be located next to the current enclosure and should be completed by mid-2023.

Information accompanying the building permit also clarify what the reason for the expansion is. Three elephant cows at Beekse Bergen are pregnant and due to give birth this summer.
 
Absolutely wonderful news!

As mentioned in the article, Jack is wild caught with only 3 living offspring, and therefore extremely genetically valuable, which pairs nicely with Zlins three wild caught cows. And of course, the fact he is a competent natural breeder and good with young calves are both tremendous bonuses as well. He will serve as an excellent role model for Zaquarri, and chances are high he will be able to get Zola and Kali pregnant in short order as long as they will stand for him. While it’s not likely, there’s also a chance he could manage to get Ulu pregnant as well, which would be wonderful.

This of course also opens up room for a new breeding bull at Sosto, as well, which is good. Their young cow sired by Jack, Kimani, will be turning 5 this year, and will be ready to start breeding herself in 2-3 years time. I wouldn’t be surprised if they try and get one more calf out of Kwanza and Jack before he departs, as well.
 
Extremely sad news, 38 year old cow Buba has been killed at the Sosto Zoo :( For unknown reasons, bull elephant Jack suddenly and unexpectedly snapped and fatally attacked Buba.

See more at the link here.
 
Lovely news about the birth of another healthy female calf! That is something that is always welcomed in the European population.

The only thing mildly frustrating is the fact that the paternity is undetermined, and there’s a reasonable chance it’s yet again Yambo, who is of course a half brother to the mother. Fingers crossed either Jums or Junmar is the sire, as they are both totally unrelated to Hilda.
 
Ok this makes absolutely zero sense to me.

Tooth is one of the most genetically valuable bulls in the EEP, and is now a proven natural breeder. However he also has a fiery personality and issues getting along with certain animals, seemingly including young bulls.

So let’s send him back to Rhenen, so he can resume beating the crap out of Duna, have social issues with one of the other older cows there, and presumably cause issues with the young bull Bumi? I’m sorry, but I see absolutely zero sense in this move. Even if something has changed, and Tooth and Duna suddenly become compatible, Duna is from one of the most genetically well represented lineages in the EEP.

Hopefully it will just be a quick stop through to see if he can get Duna bred, before he heads off for more socially and breeding opportunity appropriate lands.
 
Safaripark Beekse Bergen officially announced at the zoo entrance this morning that not one, but three elephants are pregnant. They are Pina-Nessi, Punda and Bongi. Yambo will be the father of these three calves. Pina-Nessi is due this autumn. Punda and Bongi are due in 2024.
 
Today I spoke with the director of Zoo Zlín about the situation with their elephants. Jack was supposed to arrive in May, but he is now in musth, so now they are waiting until that condition is over and he can be transported. This should happen by the beginning of summer, when the elephant cows begin to ovulate and could ideally mate.

In Zlín, they are also worried about Jack's incident with Buba. Jack is considered one of Europe's calmest bulls, so his attack was shocking. Reportedly, Buba was too antisocial due to being kept in solitude for many years and thus unable to handle social interactions with other elephants. Jack didn't attack her directly, but pushed her against the wall of the paddock. The next day she died of thrombosis.

Let's hope that this case will not be repeated and that Jack will become a successful breeding male in Zlín.
 
Lots of positive news on the African front in Europe! Hopefully the fruits of their labour will be successful, and we’ll see a good handful of calves on the ground as a result of these 2023 actions.

Also I believe it *may* have been mentioned elsewhere on the forum, but not in this topic specifically, but as far as I’m aware, the bull slated to head to West Midlands is Coco from Howletts.

Also while not directly related to the population, Beekse Bergens new outdoor expansion is now online as well. Currently their two oldest cows, Sabie and Carla, have access, no doubt acting as “testers” for the exhibit before introducing the bulls and family group. Somewhat disappointing to see they didn’t try to get any grass growing in the exhibit before adding animals, but it’s spacious enough that hopefully some will establish as time goes on.
 
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Hyak_II said:
Also I believe it *may* have been mentioned elsewhere on the forum, but not in this topic specifically, but as far as I’m aware, the bull slated to head to West Midlands is Coco from Howletts.
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I believe it was in fact mentioned in the Howletts thread, and brought up in the West Midlands thread in late January. Is there any idea when Coco will leave Howletts to move to WMSP?
 
MennoPebesma said:
Bull Sutton (*2014) has moved from West Midland Safari Park to the bachelor group at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm.

Sutton's move makes room for a new elephant bull to come to West Midland Safari Park in the very near future, as a companion for female Five. With the hope to successfully breed.

Source: Facebook West Midland Safari Park
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Welcome Sutton! Introducing the newest member of our elephant family at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm. - YouTube
Here is a video posted to the Noah's Ark ZF Youtube channel documenting the preparations for his departure from West Midlands and showing some of the happenings on Sutton's arrival to NAZF.
 
Hyak_II said:
The only thing mildly frustrating is the fact that the paternity is undetermined, and there’s a reasonable chance it’s yet again Yambo, who is of course a half brother to the mother. Fingers crossed either Jums or Junmar is the sire, as they are both totally unrelated to Hilda.
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It's not much worse, genetically, than if Yambo had been her uncle - half-siblings share roughly the same DNA (25%). So, not ideal, but the calf is probably going to be fine - health-wise.

Rajang-GOAT said:
I believe it was in fact mentioned in the Howletts thread, and brought up in the West Midlands thread in late January. Is there any idea when Coco will leave Howletts to move to WMSP?
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I do think - once ol' Coco has arrived - the next priority should be getting Five some female elephant company. Even if it's just a couple of older (non-breeding) females.

Obviously, the preferred course of action would have been the other way round - but pure logistics (and the fact that there aren't any available African elephant cows in the UK) would render this impractical.
 
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