Hm, very interesting news!
Now this absolutely might just be me reading into things more than I need to here, but I’m curious if we’re seeing the very beginning stages of pre-planning for a population boom in the next 8 to 10 years from now. If this was all happening 5 or 6 years ago, I would bet good money on seeing all of these older, non breeding animals, being relocated to other zoos. But now? All of them are going to TES.
Coincidentally, breeding is also finally starting to take off. We seemingly have/will be having more African births between 2022 and 2024 than in the past 20 years combined, and the Asian population, while not exhibiting such a sudden explosion in reproductive success, has been slowly yet consistently chugging along and producing calves regularly from the vast majority of cows who are able to, and additionally to that, we’ve also had/will have the import of four proven breeding cows, their two bull calves AND a new founder bull from outside of the NA region. Looking more south, Africam safari in Mexico, is also AZA accredited and a member of the SSP, they’ve been having extremely good success with their African elephant breeding program as well.
I would be very, very unsurprised to see a lot of these facilities who are getting out of their older geriatric animals transition to temporarily holding Indian Rhinos while bull proofing facilities (if needed) and then preparing to accept bachelor groups of elephants as they become available down the road. It’s already been mentioned on here, but with the appropriate facilities and age gaps between bulls, their management is fairly straightforward, and they make for very entertaining exhibits with their constant activity, sparring, and antics, as opposed to most geriatric elephants, which generally prefer to just stand around and eat.
Now this absolutely might just be me reading into things more than I need to here, but I’m curious if we’re seeing the very beginning stages of pre-planning for a population boom in the next 8 to 10 years from now. If this was all happening 5 or 6 years ago, I would bet good money on seeing all of these older, non breeding animals, being relocated to other zoos. But now? All of them are going to TES.
Coincidentally, breeding is also finally starting to take off. We seemingly have/will be having more African births between 2022 and 2024 than in the past 20 years combined, and the Asian population, while not exhibiting such a sudden explosion in reproductive success, has been slowly yet consistently chugging along and producing calves regularly from the vast majority of cows who are able to, and additionally to that, we’ve also had/will have the import of four proven breeding cows, their two bull calves AND a new founder bull from outside of the NA region. Looking more south, Africam safari in Mexico, is also AZA accredited and a member of the SSP, they’ve been having extremely good success with their African elephant breeding program as well.
I would be very, very unsurprised to see a lot of these facilities who are getting out of their older geriatric animals transition to temporarily holding Indian Rhinos while bull proofing facilities (if needed) and then preparing to accept bachelor groups of elephants as they become available down the road. It’s already been mentioned on here, but with the appropriate facilities and age gaps between bulls, their management is fairly straightforward, and they make for very entertaining exhibits with their constant activity, sparring, and antics, as opposed to most geriatric elephants, which generally prefer to just stand around and eat.
So soon after the birth of his younger brother too. 
