I often think it’s a great shame the magnificent Herman was never put to use; with his passing close to the arrival of the Thai cows and the fact there was insufficient time to train him for AI, which presumably was a consideration at some point given Taronga never originally planned to import Gung.
Bong Su was trained for AI by at least 2003 and breeding from Porntip was considered a priority by Taronga, so it’s not hard to imagine the following matches had Gung not arrived (with the latter two cows perhaps delayed to accomodate AI training Heman):
Bong Su/Porntip
Heman/Pak Boon
Heman/Thong Dee
It's interesting you've too brought this up as it's also something I considered recently.
At the time, prior to the Thai imports in 2006, the Australasian region only had eight Asian elephants (disclosing the post reproductive circus cows).
Out of those eight, three were bulls; one at Perth (Putra Mas, a then teenage bull), one at Melbourne (Bong Su, an unproven middle aged bull) and one at Taronga (Heman, an older bull also unproven).
There were also four facilities, the three aforementioned plus Auckland of whom had two cows; Kashin who was post reproductive and Burma who was in her early 20's. Auckland obviously needed a bull for their breeding program, plus a cow considering it was believed Burma was non reproductive. So the plan was to import a younger trio; Gung, Tukta and one other female who later went to Taronga (perhaps Tang Mo*), all of whom were only around six ish years of age. At the time, Auckland could've afforded to import a younger bull as they would've only had the two younger cows for breeding and they would mature around the same time as Gung.
Perth already had its four elephants; Tricia was post reproductive, however they had potentially the most likely breeding bull at the time (Putra Mas) and two young cows he was imported with just over a decade earlier (Permai and Teduh). So Perth was effectively operating beside this whole Thai import, they didn't need additional elephants for their breeding program the hope was Putra Mas would get the job done with the two cows who had just hit maturity at the time.
Taronga and Melbourne conversely were both in the same boat. Their two cows were both post reproductive, and neither bull was proven. It was believed Bong Su was infertile, and I seem to recall reading the same about Heman. Despite this, fertility tests were undertaken for both bulls and it seemed like results were positive. So consequently, with two potential bulls, they only needed cows. Three breeding cows for each facility to join the already existing pairs. Out of the six cows, three were reaching maturity (in their early teens), and the remaining three were all younger adolescents.
However, there was also the need to acknowledge that Burma may not be able to integrate with the younger cows due to her past. So Taronga had more reason to acquire two of the older cows (Porntip and Pak Boon, both closely bonded), with Melbourne receiving the other (Dokkoon) as they already had Mek Kapah. Vice versa, Melbourne would've then made the decision to select the other, younger closely bonded pair, Kulab and Num Oi with the other remaining cow (Thong Dee or Tang Mo*) left for Taronga.
This would've allowed Heman and Bong Su to have the opportunity to breed following the cows arrival; Heman with two of the cows, and Bong Su with one. Considering Heman's advanced age at the time, Taronga would've had even more reason to have priority of two of the older cows compared to Melbourne. Breeding from Heman would've needed to have been completed asap!
Of course, as we know, plans change swiftly. Tukta had aggressive tendencies and so was unfavorable for Auckland who wanted to operate under protected contact. She was offered to Taronga, of whom declined as they also would've had too many elephants to accommodate. Around the same time, Taronga made the decision to transfer Burma across to Dubbo, as it was highly unrealistic to believe she'd integrate with the younger cows. Therefore they had the space for a fourth cow, and ultimately it was one of Auckland's other cows. So without their two cows, Auckland had no reason to import Gung, and he was offered back to Taronga who decided to accept him. He was a valuable asset to the region that couldn't be lost; the two bulls at Melbourne and Taronga were both much older and unproven so Gung was always viewed as contingency for the long term. In saying that, there was no space for two bulls, so Heman had to be sent over to Dubbo too.
In my opinion, Taronga would've almost certainly used the same approach as Melbourne did with Bong Su; utilising him for AI, potentially with Taronga's older pair of cows, Porntip and Pak Boon whilst Gung matured. Tragically, he died just a month after the Thai cows arrived and he never ended up having offspring. It's wishful thinking to imagine what would've occurred if Tukta was never an aggressive cow, or at the very least if Heman passed later than he did.
