Belfast Zoo Jenny and Dunja arrive

It is good to know another zoo has taken it upon itself to provide a sanctuary to elderly non-reproductive elephant cows with a non-social historical background (rather frequently even outside the zoo fraternity and when it went awry individuals were dumped on a zoo for confiscation purposes).

Over the next triennium another 2-4 facilities need to be found for elderly non reproductive elephants. This in order to allow facilities willing to have a bull facility to invest in proper socially adept and breeding elephant family units, be they Asian or African.

So, again much respect to Belfast Zoo for providing cordial treatment (3 immigrant elephants inside the year).

Perhaps Al can tell us a little more on the current - I assume remodelled - elephant facilities at Belfast Zoo??? :confused:
 
Just curious in knowing if there is anymore plans on bringing more elephants to Belfast?
 
alright thanks! Hopefully all the elephants will get along really well.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
So, again much respect to Belfast Zoo for providing cordial treatment (3 immigrant elephants inside the year).

Perhaps Al can tell us a little more on the current - I assume remodelled - elephant facilities at Belfast Zoo??? :confused:
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Jenny and Dhunja have indeed arrived at Belfast this morning, and are being unloaded as I type.

Indoors there are 2 stalls, (don't have the dimensions off the top of my head) the smaller of the two used to be the Bull den and is now mainly used for P.C. training and the larger den which use to be divided into three smaller holding units has been knocked through into one big enclosure, within the the next few weeks and months the indoor enclosures will be filled with sand, logs scratching posts etc.

Outside, there are again 2 enclosures one which used to be the Bull paddock and the larger 'cow paddock' the elephants are rotated between the 2 paddocks at the moment during the day, as each enclosure has different facilities, mud wallow, sand mounds scratching posts etc.

Jenny and Dhuja will instantly be managed under Belfast Zoo's protective contact rules, along with Tina and Yhetoo, they have to be kept seperate from Tina and Yhetto for 10 days while blood samples are taken and tested, then they will be mixed.

Like Yhetto, Jenny and Dhuja will never be chained up, or made to do any form of show, basic target training and lifting of feet for foot care is all that we require of them.

At four elephants we are at comfortable capacity, and don't envisage any more elephants joining our current herd.
 
Will these elephatns follow more or do they want to keep just these 4?
 
as said before by zoo giraffe the zoo probably will keep just those for due to the space at hand.
 
I heard that one female from cologne will follow them. Someone knows more about that?
 
Colonge? really wow, I thought that was a herd used for breeding most of the herd is young. All of the cows are under 30 years of age. I'm interested.. do you know which cow?
 
I don't really know anything more about that, but in the german zoofreunde-forum, it was said that when the cows left Hannover the staff there said, them will follow one or two cows from cologne.
 
oh alright thanks for sharing that news. we'll just have to wait and see. ;)
 
There are NO plans for Belfast to recieve any more elephants from cologne or indeed anywhere else, and I'm one of the elephant team.

We feel we are at capacity with our 4 cows now, whilst the outdoor space would be ok for more our indoor facilities are not really big enough for any more elephants.

That said, if and its a BIG if, there was an urgent welfare case came up then of course it would be considered
 
good to have it confirmed.



easytigger said:
That said, if and its a BIG if, there was an urgent welfare case came up then of course it would be considered
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such as for example if there were confiscated circus elephants or something like that?
 
The Koeln elephant move to Belfast Zoo is as inaccurate as it can get. It is neither realistic nor right to assume that the EEP Species Coordinator would condone a move of prime breeding females from a breeding herd location to a non-reproductive elderly elephant group with no access to an adult/proven bull around. Preposterous! ;)
 
@ Kifaru Bwana: At least one of the females in Cologne is most likely past breeding age, Chumpol. The same may be true for Kreeblamduan. On the paper, they`re said to be in their mid-20`th, and even this would be old for a first calf if they havn`t bred before (what no one knows). But if you`ve seen them once in reality, at least Chumpol looks much older and neither have shown any reprodctive behavoir in Cologne yet. Kreeblamduan has also caused lots of trouble in the Cologne herd and has been very agressive against other herd members in the past.

Yet I don`t believe the zoo has any intentions to send them away and I am glad about that - despite all the problems, there seem to be strong bonds within the group. So I am happy that none of them is going to Belfast.
 
Yeah, Chumpol doesn't look like she is going to produce any calves. Though it is still possible. Kreeblamduan did have a chance of becoming a mother as there was talk that Maejaruad and her were covered by royal kraal bulls before coming to Colonge. I've also seen pictures of the fights between Kreeblamduan and Thi Ha Phyu both had terrible wounds. How is the situation now? are the two kept seperate? or has Kreeblamduan accepted Thi Ha Phyu's leadship?
 
I`m wondering how Dunja and Jenny are doing in Belfast, I`ve seen them often in Hannover zoo. Does anyone have anupdate about how things are going? Al? I`d very much appreciate any information! Thanks!
 
Jenny and Dunja are settling in very well and have adapted to their new surroundings without any major problems.

They are getting on well with Tina and Yhetto, although yhetto does appear to have some social issues that will get sorted in time.

They are settling into protected contacted routines, enjoying mud wallows and during the summer 24-7 access, its not unusual to find them sound asleep on one of the sand mounds in the enclosure, dead to the world either.
 
I do hope Yhetto fits in well, I think most likely yes she'll be the lowest ranked member in the herd but hopefully still accepted.
With rhani and Mumptas Mahal were the two bullying her or did she just have problems with intereactions ?
 
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