Melbourne Zoo It's a girl!

By the "one in Victoria" do you mean Mek Kapah, or is there one somewhere that I don't know about?

All these casual references to "bachelor herds"; is that possible? Can male elephants be kept in groups in the limited areas available to them in urban zoos?
 
Ara said:
By the "one in Victoria" do you mean Mek Kapah, or is there one somewhere that I don't know about?

All these casual references to "bachelor herds"; is that possible? Can male elephants be kept in groups in the limited areas available to them in urban zoos?
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Ara, the one privately owned elephant left in Victoria is Saigon who is owned by the Maynard family who operate Perry Bros Circus.

I'm also intrigued by the prospect of long term bachelor herds of Asian elephants. Does anyone know of any zoos where herds of male Asiatics have been established and maintained into adulthood? How many males have constituted these herds and for how long have they been maintained?
 
I know that bachelor herds of (often but not always younger) males occasionally form in the wild. but I too am unsure of success' mimicking this scenario in captivity. still, the Melbourne exhibit could for example hold three separated males comfortably. any more and they are sharing exhibit space.
 
phoenix said:
I know that bachelor herds of (often but not always younger) males occasionally form in the wild. but I too am unsure of success' mimicking this scenario in captivity.
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I am not sure what the longterm outlook for keeping bulls constantly together in captivity, in confined spaces, might be. I don't know anywhere in Europe(or America?) that has older males living together- it may not be possible to keep them like that over the age of (say)12 years. Its perhaps rather like Gorilla 'bachelor groups'- looks good in principal but doesn't always work in reality, at least not with fully mature animals.
 
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Sorry about the below but I was just having a discussion with some people that spell the word lose as loose and loosing and then I read this quote from the article:

"And the last name, Lyares, is also the name of a wild orchard."

Surely they mean Orchid. . .
 
actually I change my mind to lyares. Only reason I don't like Mali is that there are already a few elephants that come to mind that are named that.
 
was always gonna be! it was the only short, easy to say name - and australians, being lazy talkers, like things easy.

but moreso, it was the only name with a decent "ring" to it. i honestly think they picked mali and then a few dud names, knowing we would all vote "mali" (myself included), which is what they actually wanted all along!


still sounds more swahili than thai but well, its still better than "luk-chai"
 
Still better than times past when they used to give elephants names like Dolly and Jessie!
 
grrrrr I knew she would be called that because of easy pronunciation...... ah well hopefully Kulab's baby will have a more exotic name. ( in terms of harder to pronounce)
 
Ara said:
Still better than times past when they used to give elephants names like Dolly and Jessie!
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Though I can't find the article now, there was a newspaper columnist who put forward a (flimsy in my opinion) case that the elephant should have a traditional Aussie name, like Cheryl or Shazza.
 
jay said:
Though I can't find the article now, there was a newspaper columnist who put forward a (flimsy in my opinion) case that the elephant should have a traditional Aussie name, like Cheryl or Shazza.
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Must have been the same Ocker who has suggested that we name the cubs Sharon and Shazza!!!
 
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