European Elephants #1

Surprised it has not been mentioned on this thread but two EEHV1 related deaths- a blow to the EEP Asian elephant program...

Arwen (1 yo) 0,1- Ant Bwe Lay x Homaline- Pont-Scorff
Jamilah (2 yo) 0,1- Upali x Thi Ha Way-Chester
 
loxodontaafrica said:
Surprised it has not been mentioned on this thread but two EEHV1 related deaths- a blow to the EEP Asian elephant program...

Arwen (1 yo) 0,1- Ant Bwe Lay x Homaline- Pont-Scorff
Jamilah (2 yo) 0,1- Upali x Thi Ha Way-Chester
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The Chester calf has not been confirmed as being EEHV1!
 
Asian Elephant born at Rotterdam Zoo at 5 AM on Saterday August 10. Mother is Tron Nhi and the baby is prop. a girl.
 
UK and Ireland

I'm trying to figure out what is going on with elephants in British and Irish collections.

By breeding herds, I mean facilities with bulls and cows.

African Breeding Herds
Colchester Zoo
Howletts Wild Animal Park
Knowsley Safari Park
Asian Breeding Herds
Chester Zoo
Whipsnade Wild Animal Park
Woburn Safari Park
Dublin Zoo
AI Asian Cow Herd
Twycross Zoo
Retired Asian Cow Herd
Belfast Zoo
Blackpool Zoo
Spare African Bulls
Port Lympne Zoo
African Cow Pairs
West Midland Safari Park
Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park
Solo Cows
Longleat Safari Park (Elderly Asian)
Paignton Zoo (Middle Aged African)
Skanda Vale (Asian Temple Elephant)
Is this correct?

Does anyone know if the WMSP and Blair Drummond pairs are going to be artificially inseminated. I remember hearing that Five and Latabe were going to be, but I have no information about the ones at Blair Drummond.

Does anyone know why Anne went to Longleat alone, rather than to Belfast or Blackpool? And for that matter, what is going to happen to Duchess? She will probably live for 15-20 years. Are Paignton going to get more elephants, or is so going to be moved?
 
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Paignton will no longer keep elephants when / if Duchess passes on.
Her exhibit will then form part of a new African savannah.
 
Blair Drummond are a retired group: Down to 0.2 following a recent death and will most likely remain none breeding for the foreseeable (just built a new house with no facilities for a bull!)
 
Odd, both of the elephants at Blair Drummond are only in their early 30's. Combined with Duchess, WMSP girls and a Port Lympne bull you could have a nice little herd.

Though expect that would be very hard to arrange, nobody wants to give up their elephants.

Also, I just found out about Valli. A Hindu temple elephant in rural Wales. The world is a strange place indeed.
 
lamna said:
Odd, both of the elephants at Blair Drummond are only in their early 30's. Combined with Duchess, WMSP girls and a Port Lympne bull you could have a nice little herd.
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"Only" in their early 30's?? Female elephants need to have their first calf early in life - in their teens or very early 20's at latest. Otherwise, they will become infertile and in the rare case of a pregnancy, the risks will be huge for mother and calf. A 25 year old elephant who hasn`t bred is already too old for breeding. The 2 females at West Midlands are now pretty much there (=infertile), and the females in Blair Drummond certainly are.

Combining adult unrelated elephants into one herd is not something that can easily be done and very often results in serious aggression and death. If a small group is compartible, keep it that way, really.
 
I had heard that they needed to breed continually, but I didn't know if it was true or not.

It just seems so strange to think that animals that will likely be alive in the 2040's are already "finished".
 
Well, serveral US zoos tried to breed females in the age of 23+ years via AI in the last 10 years and the results of the few who got pregnant were distastrous - most calves stillborn and serveral females who died from the complications. So yes, it`s true. That`s death/infertility due to management mistakes, though - it can easily be avoided if young females are transferred to a zoo with a suitable bull in their teens. Bull elephants, however, can easily breed into their 50's (recent examples: Motek in Ramat Gan and Chieng Mai in Copenhagen) and females can at least breed until their are in their late 40's - but only if they have the first calves while still young.
 
Thanks for the information. At least Jack and Tooth should breed.

I expect this was a pretty important factor in elephants never being domesticated.
 
lamna said:
I expect this was a pretty important factor in elephants never being domesticated.
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Nope. Why should it have been? Supply from the wild was ample and keeping elephants in captivity was/is very expensive, thus only productive animals were kept (adults which where able to work).
 
lamna said:
I had heard that they needed to breed continually, but I didn't know if it was true or not.
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I'm not sure they need to breed continually, though too long an interval beween calves, or too late a start, as Yassa points out above, can be harmful and result in failure.

It seems Elephant females are capable of breeding successfully at a much younger age than previously suspected- some have even become pregnant(e.g. at Chester) while still only half-grown and under 8 years old. In these cases they seem to carry on growing normally and no bad effects seem evident.
 
Asian Elephants in western zoos are in most cases much heavier (very obese plus with a much quicklier growth) then wild elephants of the same age or those kept captive in range countries.

As an example - Prague has a 4-years old cow Tonya (born in Rotterdam) that is of the same height as the 8-years old Tamara imported last year from Sri Lanka (Pinnawela) and actually is already heavier then Tamara. The second imported cow Janita (9) is only a few centimeters taller but also much slimmer then Tonya.

Due to very quick growth of zoo elephant calves, they also reach adolescence very early, many of them around the age of 5 years. The ex-TP Berlin cow Cinta managed to conceive with 3 and half years - a record, I think.
 
Jana said:
Asian Elephants in western zoos are in most cases much heavier (very obese plus with a much quicklier growth) then wild elephants of the same age or those kept captive in range countries.
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Agree, there are distinct differences in their development and physique. Wild Asian elephants and captive ones in the range countries always exhibit slim bodies and appear thinner skinned-and their hides are never cracked or rugose as happens with older elephants in Western Zoos. Possibly richer feeding may contribute to the faster growth and maturation rates experienced in Western Zoos? .
 
Pertinax said:
Agree, there are distinct differences in their development and physique. Wild Asian elephants and captive ones in the range countries always exhibit slim bodies and appear thinner skinned-and their hides are never cracked or rugose as happens with older elephants in Western Zoos. Possibly richer feeding may contribute to the faster growth and maturation rates experienced in Western Zoos? .
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I agree. Way too rich feeding (boxes of fruit, cereals, bread..) plus food brought by visitors and limited exercise, all that probably has its impact.
 
Hannover saw another birth, mother is Sayang, sex of the calf has not been annonced yet.

That makes a total of 15 surviving elephant calves in European zoos this year, I guess (11 Asians and 4 Africans).
 
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