ZSL Whipsnade Zoo elephant and rhino births at whipsnade

C

Coquinguy

Well-Known Member
whipsnade wild animal park, one of my favourite zoos in the world, and just outside of london has announced the birth of a baby asian rhino, the first in 17 years and i imagine the first to the new bull on loan, and A BABY ELEPHANT.
this is the third baby elpehant to be born at whispsnade, and second female, and follows the recent tragic death of 3 year old aneena. the cause of her death is yet to be established, but this is very happy news.
scientists at ZSL studying the captive asian elephants devloped a technique to monitor the reproductive stauts of elephants through hormones in dung. there is great scope for this non-invasive technique to be applied to the management of wild pachyderm populations.
 
for great photos, just google asian elpehants and whipsnade.
for the indian rhino, the first birth (and its a girl) for mother Beehan represents a new bloodline for the EEP.
 
Had a look at the pics of the baby Indian rhino and Asian elephant at Whipsnade zoo, what great looking babies, hope all goes well for both of them.
 
I think there is a 2nd Indian rhino, and a 2nd elephant, still pregnant so two more births to come. Interesting that two of the female elephants have now each had two pregnancies, but the other two at Whipsnade (similar ages and history) have not so far conceived at all.
 
Looking forward to hearing about the other new babies due, wow another Indian rhino and elephant, i guess Whipsnade have a place for the the new baby rhino alreadly since it is an important new bloodline. How old is the older female?, any charce of her breeding.
 
I THINK that there is a 2nd rhino(the other Nepal female) and elephant still pregnant- that's presuming they haven't had any unsuccessful births- which they don't announce publicly.

The older female Indian rhino 'Roopa' is probably well past breeding age now- it was she who had the last calf seventeen years ago! (I think she had four during her breeding years) and I'd doubt they would try to breed from her again now. One of her sons 'Gaidi' is a breeding male at Berlin Zoo.
 
its certainly been an up and down start to the elephant program, but it seems things are going well and no doubt whipsnade is playing a big part in reversing the statistics surrounding low birth rates within european collections etc.
its easy to condemn zoos for the lack of success at times, but even under the best of circumstances things dont always work out. i know cows arent exactly the same as elephants, but from tow of our cows so far we have one who has had two calves and another who has had one stillborn and a miscarriage. so if it can be that hard at times to breed domesticated livestock, no wonder zoos have found breeding elephants to be a bit of a mystery.
 
If the other female Indian rhino gives birth as well that would be a huge shot in the arm for the EEP Breeding program, I hope they can get a calf every 3 years from these two ladys what a boost for the Europerns and now with the AI program starting up in Europe they can also use some of the Indian bulls that have been left out of the program so far, its looking good for them, I await the day our own Dora becomes a dad himself I feel this will be a big day in the Australian zoo world and a step forward for us, I am hoping if and when a calf does arrive that one of our other open range zoos steps up to the mark and becomes involed in the breeding of the Indian rhino. Go the rhinos.
 
i'm into em mark. think they have potential to be the main attraction in asian-themed open-range exhibits, and a useful tool at gaining public interest and providing finacial support to projects preserving asian rhino in general.
 
Your are 100% correct Pat, this spcies does act as a main attraction to a zoo (a draw card species). They also need captive breeding as they are an endangered species facing a big problem in Asia. Lets hope some of our other MAJOR open range zoos in this country step up to the mark as the Western plains zoo did, I comend them highly for what they did, they are leading the way. Go WPZ.
 
Has the female greater one horned rhino been moved from Taronga to W.P.Z yet?
 
If you want to see the video of the new babies go to the London zoo website and then to the whipsnade zoo site, nice little video of them, the new Gorilla exhibit also looks interesting.
 
As I've said before, one of the problems with Elephant breeding seems to be when zoos already had mature females and then later decide to add a (usually younger) bull to create a breeding herd, he takes time to mature and become fertile- while the cows are often either far to old to breed or becayuse they weren't bred while still young, they suffer stillbirths and miscarriages. Whipsnade's bull is younger than the cows, but fortunately the age gap isn't so great that its created a problem. (Another female there did die from complications with a stillbirth though.)
They also now have a much younger female (8 years old) born at Twycross Zoo- a good age ratio to the bull and my guess is she will soon become pregnant. Current herd totals; One bull/four cows + young cow from Twycross/2 calves.

Rhinos- Yes,Indian rhinos are a very dramatic exhibit. In Uk Whipsnade is the only zoo to have bred them, and the only one to exhibit them apart from London zoo in the distant past. (The two Nepali females were also at London temporarily before going to Whipsnade).

Now Edinburgh Zoo have two young males(from European zoos) and Chester Zoo are also to add this species to their collection this year. So there could be more breeding and increased numbers in UK in the future.
 
We shouldn't forget either that some Zoos don't seem to have any problems with breeding elephants. In Uk Howletts are successful with Africans, and two other collections have bred calves successfully too. Chester is being increasingly successful with their Asians(though some of the older females will never breed now).

In Europe Emmen Zoo has a large Asian group with MANY successful births, Rotterdam Zoo too has done well with successful breeding, rather surprising as they have only a traditional city zoo-type housing & (spacious) paddock so that they can't keep too many and have to send animals elsewhere.

Why are these zoos successful where others aren't? (Age of the animals?):confused:
 
Colchester just anounced another female african due, and they look to have a very simple exhibit, just i like dubbos exhibit before renovations, a combination of barriers, with rocks, short elec fence, and a slow moat, more a steep drop tp the ppl fence
 
2005 bumper year for asians

2005 was big year for the asian elephant EEP, with calves born at Artis (netherlands) Hanover (Germany) and 2 calves in Zurich (TRY GOOGLING PICS OF THESE CALVES, IF YOURE LUCKY YOULL SEE THE BULL TOSSING HIS OFFSPRING THROUGH THE AIR OFF HIS TUSK!!!)
This was Hanover's second calf in 2 years, and the two calves were the first and second born in a German zoo for more than 30 years.
Last year was also successful with Chester and obviously Whipsnade is keeping the trend going in 2007. Perhaps a greater focus on the correct social groupings of elephants, not neccesarily big, fancy exhibits, has been the key to succesful breeding.
And for the record Anna died due to birthing complications at Whipsnade. If Aneena had survived and Anna's calf, that would have made 4!!!
 
Yep I have seen the exhibit at Colchester zoo, its not one of the better exhibits for elephants but they are a small local zoo but they seem to be able to breed them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top