Doesn't this still leave the young bull Juva at Port Lympne? He arrived from Howletts with Janu three years ago.
I really hope there hasn't been yet another death at Port Lympne prompting this move, especially after what happened with the Asian herd. Hopefully Juva is still there, and this is Port Lympne retaining him as possibly a future breeding bull, rather than going out of elephants there. If he's alive and Port Lympne were going out of elephants altogether, they would surely have just sent Juva along with Janu and Kruger to Noah's Ark? However, retaining a young male at Port Lympne who is the son of Jums does nothing to solve the risk of further inbreeding at Howletts, as Juva is related to all of the young cows there by his father. The JAF website does say that they have plans to restructure their captive groups to provide 'the best possible captive arrangement'. Perhaps this signals a redevelopment of at least the cow barn/complex, which would require the animals to vacate the space. Given the track record at PL, I hope some work is done on the facility before more animals are added.
Having not bred at Port lympne before the cows died, I believe Kruger was unable to dominate the breeding cows at Howletts so in some ways it's better he has moved. Kruger being reunited with Buta is significant - they both came from the same import of young cull survivors arriving at Windsor Safari Park in 1988. At Knowsley, Kruger actually sired a calf with Buta in 2004 which unfortuntely was killed by her at birth, but it bodes well for future breeding at Noah's Ark.
It will be interesting to see what happens now at Howletts, as many of Jum's daughters (and granddaughters) are already at or approaching an age where they could concieve by him, something that has already happened a number of times in the past.
