AmbikaFan, I would like to correct some of the information you posted and provide some more insight. I've been around many, many elephants and can tell them apart.
The zoo had a different Asian elephant named Shanti (notice no "h") until 1975 when she died and a male African elephant named Dzinga whose behavior became problematic, who was sent to a circus.
The bull African forest elephant was named Dzimbo. Nancy grew increasingly aggressive towards him and eventually shoved him into the moat causing injuries. He was sent to Lion Country Safari in Florida, where it is thought, he died shortly after due to internal injuries.
As a result the shorter, squatter elephant with Ambika in the four early 1970s pictures are the first Shanti who died
Shati (left), Ambika (right)
The shorter, squat elephant in these photos from 1973 is Ambika while the taller, leaner animal is Shanti. Ambika has always been a smaller animal attaining a shoulder height of 7ft 10in in her prime.
Ambika’s face has very distinct, thick, puffy, folds above and below her eyes, and a thick trunk that has a lot of width throughout. Her trunk was also disproportionately long, notice how it is on the ground and curled over in this picture. The frontal depigmanetation on Ambika's trunk base does not extend upwards beyond the corner of her eyes, the elephant on the left has depigmention which does go beyond that.
Also note the angle of the ear where it folds over at the top. Ambika's is more horizontal while Shanti's slopes down at an angle.
Shati (left), Ambika (right)
Also, if you look at the depigmentation on the face (especially the temporal gland region) you can see how the slimmer animal’s (left) long, horizontal pink streak markings differ from Ambika (right) short vertical pink streak.
The 1988 picture does indeed show Ambika, Shanthi (at 12), and Nancy, but it seems improbable that they would all just be meeting after being at the zoo as a threesome for 11 years and even longer for Ambika and Nancy. What I think is happening here in 1888 may be some test pairings to help integrate nervous and tentative new resident Toni from the Nay Aug Zoo in Scranton.
Shanthi and Nancy are touching trunks in this image, Ambika is the one partially hidden by the fence. In 1988, management wanted to integrate the lone African cow, Nancy, to give her some companionship. Up until this point, the two species had been exhibited separately. Since the departure of the forest bull Dzimbo in 1976, Nancy had been kept solitary for the past 12 years. Toni didn't arrive at the National Zoo until October, 1989.
The only one I'm torn over is the one with Shanti/Shanthi lying. It seems to be in a group of photos from the early 1970s, but this picture not only looks like 13-year-old Shanthi did in the late 80s, but I suspect the first Shanti who died in 1975 might not have looked so comfortable lying down. Ultimately, though, I'll tag it as Shanti I in the early 70s because it seems to part of a specific trove of pics from the early 70s and also due to the hooked left wrist which could be osteomyelitis, a condition serious enough to bring about euthanasia in a couple of years.
The one lying in the sternal position is Ambika. There doesn’t seem to be any problem with the angualtion of the left wrist, looks within the normal range.
I'm not sure who the Asian is here with Nancy, I'm not nearly as good as you guys are at telling them apart, but I think it's Ambika? Some time in the 1980s or early 90s.
View attachment 435102
The Asian cow in this photo is Shanthi. In profile her spine is not as flat as Ambika’s and she has several distinctive large pink patches of depigmentation on the underside of her trunk.
At least I can tell Nancy from the Asians!
