Chester Zoo Is Elephant 'Birma' pregnant?

CZJimmy said:
I'm not sure, but I guess it could have something to do with Upali's mood swings :confused:
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Upali apparently is going through puberty and i heard that he only likes to have close contact with Sithami and Birma because the older cows don't approve of him very much, just like in the wild even huge massive bulls can be scared of Matriachs or dominant cows.

Also Aparently the older cows are more fond of the larger Chang who is now Dompierre, he's got a 14 year old cow pregnant their called Nina.
 
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dragon(ele)nerd said:
I heard that Plock bull Thisiam was going to Kolmarden, Maurice came to Chester apparently because of he was always bullied by his fellow elephants Aung Si and Aung Bo keepers tried to introduce him to the older males but the two older Emmen bulls Maung Htoo and Tjse Pyan shrunged him off and also Maxim wasn't either.
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As I observed before - it has already been talked about - the info on Maurice is incorrect. Chester is not to receive another bull for the foreseeable future. Obviously though, Upali has a serious problem with the older cows ... but to have him replaced with Maurice who is equally under age and yet not able to stand up for himself makes for an extremely unwise course of action.

Perhaps the info on Thisiam is correct (he is presently alone at Plock) and he would indeed be a valuable individual to breed from (his genetic line is not well represented in captivity).
 
jelle said:
Obviously though, Upali has a serious problem with the older cows ...
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Only with a couple. 'Sheba' is too old too breed anymore, 'Maya' is non reproductive. 'Thi' he has bred with.
So Jangoli & Birma are the only two older ones he may have trouble with..
 
Pertinax said:
Only with a couple. 'Sheba' is too old too breed anymore, 'Maya' is non reproductive. 'Thi' he has bred with.
So Jangoli & Birma are the only two older ones he may have trouble with..
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If this continues for sure Chester will have to change their breeding bull. Proven cow Jangoli and unrepresented Birma are just too important to the breeding programme to go to waste.

Perhaps when in doubt, a move down south to Whipsnade for both cows on a short term breeding loan would be another option? :)
 
Birma has mated with Upali last year. Jangolie has already 2 calves and if Upali will need some more time to become dominant and mate her, I don`t see a big problem. Seperating her from her family group would be worse.

I just wish he would sort out the problems with the big females so that he can spend the days with the herd in the big enclosure.
 
jelle said:
As I observed before - it has already been talked about - the info on Maurice is incorrect. Chester is not to receive another bull for the foreseeable future. Obviously though, Upali has a serious problem with the older cows ... but to have him replaced with Maurice who is equally under age and yet not able to stand up for himself makes for an extremely unwise course of action.

Perhaps the info on Thisiam is correct (he is presently alone at Plock) and he would indeed be a valuable individual to breed from (his genetic line is not well represented in captivity).
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Your right, sorry, Maurice is still in Sevilla according to all other elephant databases, and also backing your fact if Upali can't stand up for himself than how will Maurice?
 
Yassa said:
Birma has mated with Upali last year. Jangolie has already 2 calves and if Upali will need some more time to become dominant and mate her, I don`t see a big problem. Seperating her from her family group would be worse.

I just wish he would sort out the problems with the big females so that he can spend the days with the herd in the big enclosure.
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I think Upali's only problems are his youth aned his size(still growing) so maybe the oldest cows are still dominant over him. As far as mating goes, it seems Jangoli is the only problem. She is a large, fully mature cow and perhaps needs a bigger bull to cover her successfully. Overall I agree with Yassa though- in this case its better to do nothing.
 
Pertinax said:
. She is a large, fully mature cow and perhaps needs a bigger bull to cover her successfully. Overall I agree with Yassa though- in this case its better to do nothing.
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Perhaps your right (或许 perhaps in chinese) but Chang wasn't necessarily the biggest baddest bull around. I haven't actually in person seen Upali but through genes Upali had a sri lankan mother (Ceyla Himali) which "apparently" is the biggest subspecies and Maxi is considered to be quite large. At this age Upali shouldn't be dwarf size compared to Chang, Then again Jangolie might just hate the the young stud. And also like in Humans race isn't always the factor in size but once agian thank you (谢谢)
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
Perhaps your right (或许 perhaps in chinese) but Chang wasn't necessarily the biggest baddest bull around. I haven't actually in person seen Upali but through genes Upali had a sri lankan mother (Ceyla Himali) which "apparently" is the biggest subspecies and Maxi is considered to be quite large. At this age Upali shouldn't be dwarf size compared to Chang, Then again Jangolie might just hate the the young stud. And also like in Humans race isn't always the factor in size but once agian thank you (谢谢)
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From what I remember, Chang was quite large (he had huge feet!). Upali is fairly small at the moment...
 
CZJimmy said:
From what I remember, Chang was quite large (he had huge feet!). Upali is fairly small at the moment...
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Do you know his exact height? or Weight? His dad was a royal thai elephant( F.Y.I Chang means elephant in Thai) his dad Chieng Mai was bigish i must say and his mum Ida is average size. His adult half sister Irma is around 8'6 but his other sister Schottzi is very large.

Our bull here in Melbourne zoo is Bong Su he is 10'1.5 feet and 5035kgs. He's from Malaysia and Malay bulls aren't Mr. King Kong.

Then again i haven't seen Upali or Chang in person.
 
What do the forum think about possible subspecies of Asiatic elephants being 'crossed' in captivity. There seem to be very few captive bred animals whose parents originate from the same asiatic countries. Is the general view to keep the captive population going no matter what or to build up numbers to eventually release captive-bred groups back into wild areas?
 
I wasn't aware of any hostlity between any of the older females and Upali at Chester, until I saw the inference here. I would say Upali is well grown for his age, any dominance problems only being the normal ones which can arise between an immature male and adult females. Jangoli is one of the biggest females at Chester.

Chang never appeared very big to me- possibly the absence of tusks was the reason for that. Upali has tusks (at present).
 
Pertinax said:
Not sure. Do tushes develop before real tusks in bulls? I just presumed he will be a tusker- perhaps not...
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His mother's side is Sri-lankan usually tuskless but his dad Maxi was Thai and has very noticible tusks so i say he probably would have tushes. But like i said before i haven't seen Upali in person.
 
Birma is not pregnant, neither are any of the other females. Upali will be put with her agian in March/April 2009.
 
From March or April 2009 Upali will be given access to Birma, Sithami and Jangoli.

For the moment Thi is not being used for breeding. Sundara will not be given the chance to breed until she is around 7 or 8.
 
bongorob said:
From March or April 2009 Upali will be given access to Birma, Sithami and Jangoli.

For the moment Thi is not being used for breeding. Sundara will not be given the chance to breed until she is around 7 or 8.
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Any reason not Thi? is it because she gave birth to Raman and she isn't ovulating yet?
 
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