North American African Elephant Population 2024

Sad news out of Knoxville, Tonka was euthanized on Wednesday, May 8th.

He was an iconic figure at the zoo and will surely be missed! It is especially sad given Knoxville is now without elephants. Hopefully one day in the future they can make a return given our history as the zoo with the first two African elephant calves born in the western hemisphere.

Anyways, rest easy sweet boy:(

Zoo Knoxville
 
I don't wanna be an armchair zookeeper but this seems like a really embarrassing mistake.
 
John Marchwick said:
How was it possible the calf was missexed?
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Baby elephants have notoriously difficult to identify reproductive organs, they're fairly internal for a while, and it is likely that the vet and keeper staff jumped the gun a bit when they saw something resembling male genitalia.
This also happened with Asian elephant Rama in OKC a few years ago.
 
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Frankie_number_1_fan said:
Surprise! Renee's calf, initially believed to be male, is actually a GIRL!!! She has been redubbed Kirkja!
The Toledo Zoo on Instagram: "Baby elephant update!"

Absoloutly incredible news for Toledo, as we all know a little female calf is just what they needed.
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That is cool, more females in NA. Now she can stay at the zoo for a longer time until a zoo needs a female. I am happy that she is a female. I was going to announce that but you guys are fast.
 
Frankie_number_1_fan said:
Baby elephants have notoriously difficult to identify reproductive organs, they're fairly internal for a while, and it is likely that the vet and keeper staff jumped the gun a bit when they saw something resembling male genitalia.
This also happened with Asian elephant Rama in OKC a few years ago.
Click to expand...

I did remember that with Rama. I’m just surprised it happened again…
 
John Marchwick said:
How was it possible the calf was missexed?
Click to expand...

Frankie_number_1_fan said:
Baby elephants have notoriously difficult to identify reproductive organs, they're fairly internal for a while, and it is likely that the vet and keeper staff jumped the gun a bit when they saw something resembling male genitalia.
This also happened with Asian elephant Rama in OKC a few years ago.
Click to expand...

StoppableSan said:
Considering how elephant reproductive organs are structured (and with key components being internal), it makes sense how this happened with Rama and Kirkja.
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And, without hand on contact it can be even more difficult to determine. In the past, keepers were usually hands on with calves from day one but nowadays we've begun to see keepers give mothers and calves more space for the first few months. Only then, when the calf is a little more independent, a more concrete assessment can be made.
 
Jambo said:
And, without hand on contact it can be even more difficult to determine. In the past, keepers were usually hands on with calves from day one but nowadays we've begun to see keepers give mothers and calves more space for the first few months. Only then, when the calf is a little more independent, a more concrete assessment can be made.
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I think honestly the issue here is that the keepers did have their hand on her on day one or at least in the first week. I mean they were sharing space with the calf in the first week so, for me, for this observation to take 3 months is a little questionable.
 
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Not surprised at all. Truthfully I've been questioning if this calf was a mis-sexed cow since day one. In every picture I've seen of her where you can kind of see her genitals, its always had the more female looking "square off" of a vulva, as opposed to the more smooth look of a male. Moreover, not a single video or picture has been seen of her with a penis out, which you usually see a lot with male calves.

All in all, very, very pleasant news! This sets Toledo off on a spectacularly good foot for the future, so hopefully Renee and her little daughter continue to thrive and breed far into the future!
 
John Marchwick said:
The Memphis Zoo has just announced as part of their first phase of their master plan that they’re building a new African Elephant exhibit

Memphis Zoo announces $250M plan to improve exhibits
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Just wanted to add that they haven't released any drawings from what I can find, but they did provide this one to their local news. Looks to me that it will be "mixed" species like at Dallas at least with giraffes. Time will tell if this comes true.
Memphis Flyer | Memphis Zoo Plans $250M Investment In Campus Upgrades
 
John Marchwick said:
The Memphis Zoo has just announced as part of their first phase of their master plan that they’re building a new African Elephant exhibit
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I'm certianly curious on what the long-term plans for the exhibit will be. Currently Memphis houses only post-reproductive females, but I wonder if the exhibit will be designed to hold a breeding herd, bachelors, etc since the need for housing a group of unrelated geratric females will only decrease as time goes on.
 
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