Bored / depressed animals

The book is called Molly's Zoo and I got it from the gift shop.
The part of the book I read says that "the only elephant who was completly calm during Tonzi's labour was Noor Jahan. She'd seen it all before".
It also metions how she looked after the calves a lot when their mothers weren't near, so I guess she should be fine having her own calf.
 
ashley-h said:
Although it's mentioned in a book I have that Noor Jahan has had plenty of experience with calves at her previous home, so she should be ok with her own...
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Norjahan was imported to Twycross as a small calf so its debatable how much group experience she'd had before being removed from the wild- possibly not too much.

As far as remaining calm while the other cows gave birth at Twycross- well, she was still only a halfgrown animal and not giving birth herself.

However, she has experienced growing up with the two calves at Twycross since they were born and my guess is this, plus the presence of the experienced mothers will help make it an easy birth situation when the time comes. But elephants can be very unpredictable...
 
Ah, I thought she came from a logging camp at about 6 years old, which would have given her plenty of experience with births etc.
However, like you said, having 2 already experienced mothers there probably will help her a lot.
 
ashley-h said:
Ah, I thought she came from a logging camp at about 6 years old, which would have given her plenty of experience with births etc.
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She did, but we don't know her exact history there, how much of a social grouping she would have been living in or if there were small calves etc.. and its a long time ago for her now. Also I think the other two females Tonzi & Mimbu came from a similar background, and yet they became very excited when giving birth. Somehow I think NJ's group experience at Twycross will count for more.
 
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There is a lot less to fear for me, now that I heard those points, oh just clearing up Emmet is the father right?
 
I have just enjoyed reading through this fascinating thread and have the following points to make .

I believe in the past a few Asian elephants have lived a lot longer in captivity (zoos and circuses ) than seems to be the case these days . Husbandry would have been judged poor compared to today's standards but these animals got plenty of exercise from working - either giving rides or in the circus ring . Of course very many others died young as well - it was easy to replace losses . Sheba at Chester who is not really that old seems to becoming rather geriatric now , I cannot see her living for many more years .

The record for Asiatic elephant breeding at Port Lympne was dire , of many calves born over the years the only survivor was May Tagu now at Antwerp . She was born at the same time as the other 2 'Rotterdam' females were pregnant . One of these females died along with her calf and the other calf born also failed to survive .
 
Bele said:
Sheba at Chester who is not really that old seems to becoming rather geriatric now , I cannot see her living for many more years .

The record for Asiatic elephant breeding at Port Lympne was dire , of many calves born over the years the only survivor was May Tagu now at Antwerp .
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1. I've been told Sheba has lost condition dramatically over the last year. I know she's lost most of her teeth and has to have food prepared specially so she can feed. I imagine it may be a matter of months rather than years?:(

2. I was at Port Lympne one time when one of the females was in labour- I later heard the calf was stillborn. I believe Port Lympne had about nine, a mixture of still births, miscarriages and trampled calves, before they finally succeeded with 'Sittang'- only to have him die aged two. 'May Tagu' was born to the same female I believe.
They admitted in a quiet 'press statement' that they were giving up with them because of all these failures, though it was never publicised on their website.
 
I read somewhere that one of the females in Port Lympe, perhaps Tin Tin htoo had a stillbirth because of swelling around the birth canal, they also claim that for some of the other stillbirths, hmmm can't really find the words for it,

How is the Afdrican herd doing at the moment and does anyone know the situation at Benidorm with breeding? There was this one female that was rejected by the rest of the heard and was sawying back and forth continously Luka showed a great interest in her all of a sudden,
 
Pertinax said:
1. I've been told Sheba has lost condition dramatically over the last year. I know she's lost most of her teeth and has to have food prepared specially so she can feed. I imagine it may be a matter of months rather than years?:(
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Sheba is in her mid 50's (56 I think), which is not a bad age. The main concern for Chester staff is the amount of weight she loses during the winter. Hopefully they will manage to get her up to a good weight for the winter.
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
I read somewhere that one of the females in Port Lympe, perhaps Tin Tin htoo had a stillbirth because of swelling around the birth canal, they also claim that for some of the other stillbirths, hmmm can't really find the words for it,
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Keeping African and Asian Elephants in close proximity leads to problems with servival rates of Asian Elephant births, some infection can't remeber of the top of my head.

But this was one of the reasons they stopped keeping the Asian Elephants
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
Is there any main disease that Sheba has got?
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She has no disease I believe all her problems were age related. She is down to her last set of teeth or tooth. This is why she has to have food speacially prepared because she has differcuilty chewing and is very slow at eating.
 
African elephants at Howletts / Port Lympne

The main herd at Howletts has had I believe 5 births in recent years - the latest earlier this year . Does anyone know if the proposed Cow House extension was built ?

3 females were moved to Port Lympne some time ago , joined by breeding bull Kruger from Knowsley . I think there has been mating but do not know if any are pregant .

I visited Terra Natura early last year . Luka was in the large paddock with quite a few cows and was enthusiastically pursuing one though I did not see a mating . 3 cows were housed separately plus a lone bull in very poor condition - he has since died .
 
Bele said:
I visited Terra Natura early last year . Luka was in the large paddock with quite a few cows and was enthusiastically pursuing one though I did not see a mating . 3 cows were housed separately plus a lone bull in very poor condition - he has since died .
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Is the your are talking about that died, is he Baba? Didn't he die at El Calissto? (Sevilla)
 
taun said:
Keeping African and Asian Elephants in close proximity leads to problems with servival rates of Asian Elephant births, some infection can't remeber of the top of my head.

But this was one of the reasons they stopped keeping the Asian Elephants
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Its a virus which seems to affect young Asians in particular though it can be incolulated against. I think Africans can carry it and not be affected. The two year old asian male 'Sittang' at Port Lympne died from it.

The interesting thing is that Howletts(have only Africans) and Port Lympne(then had only Asians) are about 20 miles apart. Maybe the virus can be transferred via feedstuffs, or people(e.g. staff or vehicles) or birds?
 
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