Melbourne Zoo It's a girl!

The more intelligent an animal, the more its behaviour is learned, rather than being instinctive, including raising its young. I'm sure an armadillo or an echidna wouldn't need any human guidance. I don't think elephants would become dependent as you put it, once they have had a bit of experience.

As for parrots not raising chicks past a certain stage, I don't know if that's true or not. Got any examples? (maybe we should take that across to the Aviculturists thread.)

This evening I saw the documentary "Dokkoon's Baby" on Channel 9. All I can say is WOW! Wonderful stuff. (Hope my grand-kids were watching.)
 
have possible names for the calf been released for people to vote on?
 
Channel 9 were remarkably quiet about promoting it (not like them at all!) I only found it through sheer luck.
Maybe if you lobby them they will repeat it.
 
Ara said:
Channel 9 were remarkably quiet about promoting it (not like them at all!) I only found it through sheer luck.
Maybe if you lobby them they will repeat it.
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i could probably find it on the internet somewhere.
 
The news recently stated 5 names have been released for public voting, I can't find it on the site does anyone know what they are?
 
if they are not on the zoos vic website then i doubt that they would have been released just yet. i heard that they were still deciding on names.
 
On lastnights news the minister responsible for the zoo said the keepers are still looking at names. A keeper said some animal keepers believe it is bad luck to name an animal too early.

I think this is a good way of doing it, the keepers will know the animals personality and can choose names based on that.
 
I was just looking at a news article regarding Melbounre's former director advising that the zoo's elephant herd be moved to Werribee Open Range Zoo as another calf is due soon

Now, I know basically very little about Australian zoo's, but when i read about the current situation and the fact that they'd just updated the elephant exhibit awhile ago for 15 million dollars, this idea sprang to mind as a compromisation

Why not move the current herd at Melbourne to Werribee so they have lots of room to breed and flourish and then maintain a small, non breeding female group at Melbourne so the public can still see elephants there

I think this is a win-win situation, but since I don't know much abou tthe facilities and such... I'd love to hear what pro's and cons my idea may have
 
win-win for all but the post-reproductive female elephants who are removed from their bonded herds to "retire" at melbourne.
 
males only at melbourne is about the best we can hope for given the situation (15 million spent just recently). however, there is an argument that since males cannot be "walked" outside their exhibit, they are actually deserving of bigger exhibits than females.

but you know i'm for NO elephants in urban zoos at all.
 
I was thinking a bachelor group may be a good plan too, they could keep them at Melbourne and use them for AI

When I mentioned the non-breeding herd, I meant a small group of females who were the only ones in the herd (As in like 3 elderly females who had been together for several years who weren't with previously bonded reproductive females)
 
Zoogoer2000 said:
When I mentioned the non-breeding herd, I meant a small group of females who were the only ones in the herd (As in like 3 elderly females who had been together for several years who weren't with previously bonded reproductive females)
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only, there are no elephants at melbourne that fit that description (and virtually none in the country) and never will be unless they purposefully remove older females from the herd.
 
Zoogoer2000 said:
I was thinking a bachelor group may be a good plan too, they could keep them at Melbourne and use them for AI

When I mentioned the non-breeding herd, I meant a small group of females who were the only ones in the herd (As in like 3 elderly females who had been together for several years who weren't with previously bonded reproductive females)
Click to expand...

To do this Melbourne zoo would have to convince Dubbo to give up two of their asians, which won't happen as that would leave them with one and that is illegal in NSW. With regards to non - breeding elephants, in our region we have 3 at Taronga Western Plains, 3 at Australia Zoo and 2 in Victoria. Bullen's would never give up their elephants. and why should they, they have it pretty good at Australia Zoo. And I seriously doubt the other privately owned elephants in victoria would be given up either. I believe they have a much better lifestyle where they are than they could have at Melbourne. So a non-breeding herd would be a long long way off.
 
Again, I know very little about Australian zoo's... so Im glad you guys are filling me in on this

So I guess the best option would be to keep a bachelor herd at Melbourne for AI and keep the main breeding herd out at Werribee
 
no worries zoogoer - this is just elephants form a firey debate that has been going on here - literally - for years!

the fact is that when melbourne and taronga was fighting legal action, and some public opposition against their elephant import - they categorically stated that they wished to develop multi-generational, stable and bonded matriarchal herds. in other words replicate the scenario in the wild.

this is good for elephants. non breeding older cows definitely have an important role to play in the herd. a good example is mek kappah. melbourne zoo couldn't really have expected for the situation to play out any better - being the oldest and original melbourne elephant she instantly took on the leadership role. she bonded most closely with the second eldest elephant (dokkoon) and closely guarded the other three from being rough-housed by bong su, who she grew up with.

she will never be able to bred. but in many ways she's the most important member of the herd. splitting the herd based on age or breeding opportunity rather than individual bonds is a unproductive ethically questionable move.
 
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