North American African Elephant Population

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Animals R AMAZING! said:
Well Ajani has had an ideal life for a bull elephant, he was raised by mom in a herd with other calves for his first couple years and then was transferred to Birmingham and was part of a bachelor herd including mature bull Bulwagi. So given all this, he should definitely be capable of getting the job done and from the video it looks like he's pretty interested in the cows as well. Like you said most of the girls are just hitting prime breeding age so it's very possible Ajani may have already gotten one or more of them pregnant. Stay optimistic!
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And they could be following Houston's example of waiting till their females are nearing the end of their pregnancy
 
Mr.Ivory said:
And they could be following Houston's example of waiting till their females are nearing the end of their pregnancy
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Yes, I believe zoos are recommended to wait till pregnant cows are atleast a year into the pregnancy to announce it. This may be a bit annoying for us elephant enthusiasts but it helps keep zoos from attracting negative attention―since there is always the chance of something going wrong with the pregnancy―which is worth it imo.
 
Animals R AMAZING! said:
Yes, I believe zoos are recommended to wait till pregnant cows are atleast a year into the pregnancy to announce it. This may be a bit annoying for us elephant enthusiasts but it helps keep zoos from attracting negative attention―since there is always the chance of something going wrong with the pregnancy―which is worth it imo.
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Now more then ever since the cows that could be pregnant are wild caught, and we all know how Animal Rights groups are when it comes to wild elephants becoming pregnant in human care.
 
I think I know why Dallas has not had calf born in nearly 6 years its because I believe that Tendaji is a relative of Milio and Zola which is why they wont allow him to mate with them. This a very crazy conclusion, buy If someone has a comment or disagrees with something feel free to comment your opinion
 
Mr.Ivory said:
I think I know why Dallas has not had calf born in nearly 6 years its because I believe that Tendaji is a relative of Milio and Zola which is why they wont allow him to mate with them. This a very crazy conclusion, buy If someone has a comment or disagrees with something feel free to comment your opinion
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I highly doubt Tendaji is a relative of the girls. They definitely wouldn't import a relative unless it was unintentional and even if he is they probably would've recieved a new bull by now like Sedgwick and Omaha did. My guess is that he just needs a little time to get the hang of breeding. Remember, just because he was imported with them doesn't necesarily make him related to the girls, for instance Mabu was imported with the SDZSP girls and has bred numerous times with all of them and the same goes for Sdudla, Matjeka, and Mbali.
 
Mr.Ivory said:
I think I know why Dallas has not had calf born in nearly 6 years its because I believe that Tendaji is a relative of Milio and Zola which is why they wont allow him to mate with them. This a very crazy conclusion, buy If someone has a comment or disagrees with something feel free to comment your opinion
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That’s a possibility but I don’t think that Dallas would have chosen him to be brought in if he were related to the girls. Especially if he was, then wouldn’t they have kept Nolwazi and Amahle and sent these two girls to Fresno? Or sent him out for a San Diego boy if nothing else.
 
That was very stupid of me I know I know I but I just find it shocking considering how fast the San Diego herd grew from just 7 to 18 in just a few years, and what also worried me is that I have never seen breeding behavior from Tendaji in videos he doesn't even seem interested in mating
 
Mr.Ivory said:
That was very stupid of me I know I know I but I just find it shocking considering how fast the San Diego herd grew from just 7 to 18 in just a few years, and what also worried me is that I have never seen breeding behavior from Tendaji in videos
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No, that’s actually not an absurd conclusion when comparing the two imports. I agree with you, I’m worried at the lack of breeding and birth as well…
 
Mr.Ivory said:
That was very stupid of me I know I know I but I just find it shocking considering how fast the San Diego herd grew from just 7 to 18 in just a few years, and what also worried me is that I have never seen breeding behavior from Tendaji in videos
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It is a bit unfortunate that no calves have been born at Dallas since Ajabu but let's stay hopeful that Tendaji will prove himself in due time. Not all bulls can be like Mabu (unfortunately).
 
Animals R AMAZING! said:
It is a bit unfortunate that no calves have been born at Dallas since Ajabu but let's stay hopeful that Tendaji will prove himself in due time. Not all bulls can be like Mabu (unfortunately).
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All we can do is hope that he will be a successful breeding bull just like Jackson and Mabu, I dont want another Msholo who is so very genetically valuable for the population but has not sired any calves but at the very least Msholo has actually mounted cows.
 
What could have worked for the North Carolina Zoo when it came to elephant breeding is they could have transferred three breeding females Tonga, Lil Felix and Amy, breeding bull Willie and his two calves Maximus son of Lil Felix, and Batir daughter to Tonga and Solomon the only other proven bull (AI sire) from Riddles, along with Rafiki, Nekhanda, C’sar, and Lil Diamond. It would have enabled the North Carolina Zoo to have one of the best breeding programs in the US four proven breeding females two proven bull (one through natural breeding and one through AI) and two cows with the potential of having calves not to mention Batir

If it were to happen the North Carolina Zoo would have looked like this

North Carolina Zoo - Asheboro, North Carolina, USA
1.0 C’sar 1974-00-00
0.1 Tonga 1978-00-00
0.1 Lil Diamond (Louie aka Old Diamond x Toto) 1978-03-02
1.0 Willie 1979-00-00
0.1 Rafiki 1981-00-00
1.0 Solomon 1983-00-00
0.1 Lil Felix 1983-00-00
0.1 Amy 1987-00-00
0.1 Nekhanda 1988-00-00
0.1 Batir (Willie x Tonga) 2002-01-21
1.0 Maximus (Willie x Lil Felix) 2003-04-16
 
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That would have been nice, but ultimently that's a lot of animals swapping around and having to introduce to each other, not particularly feesable over all.

Honestly, they should have just done things the same as they did, and then in 2009-2010, when it was alperant things weren't working well with c'zar and Artie, acquired S'dudla from Montgomery. He's a good breeder, and he likely would have gotten Tonga, Batir, Nikki, and Rafiki all pregnant assuming they were all capable of it at the time.

Oh well.

Also unrelated, but I think it was in this thread too, I saw someone mention that Tendaji at Dallas is a non breeder. Not true. He definitely has an urge to mate and tries with with younger cows, he just hasn't had much success yet for whatever reason. (Personally, I think he's just one of those bulls that won't be successful until he's a bit on the older side regardless of how willing the cows are. I couldn't say why, it's just a gut feeling).
 
Am I the only one not understanding Disney's breeding program Vasha should have had a calf with Donna in 2016. Maclean mated with Donna naturally and Vasha her self has proven that she can mate naturally so why hasn't she been mated. Kianga, Nadirah should have at least 2 calves by now and Luna should have been AI'ed with semen from Ali or Sdudla.
 
Guys, at this point we just need to accept that the North American population is not doing very well and stop complaining about it. I agree DAK’s program is not doing very well but we can say the same about practically every other zoo’s breeding program. Even SDZSP, which was the population’s savior a decade ago, no longer has a bull and the breeding program has pretty much halted for the time being. All we can do is hope the population recovers eventually in the future. As for Luna, even DAK residents Jabali or Tsavo could be used to AI (or maybe even try natural breeding) her as both are old enough and unrelated to Luna.
 
Animals R AMAZING! said:
Guys, at this point we just need to accept that the North American population is not doing very well and stop complaining about it. I agree DAK’s program is not doing very well but we can say the same about practically every other zoo’s breeding program. Even SDZSP, which was the population’s savior a decade ago, no longer has a bull and the breeding program has pretty much halted for the time being. All we can do is hope the population recovers eventually in the future. As for Luna, even DAK residents Jabali or Tsavo could be used to AI (or maybe even try natural breeding) her as both are old enough and unrelated to Luna.
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Asian Elephants though it’s gotten slowly better I thought…
 
John Marchwick said:
Asian Elephants though it’s gotten slowly better I thought…
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The Asian elephants population is getting slowly better, while the African elephant population is a failure despite having more genetic diversity and being larger. The only zoos that I see being the saving grace to the population are Omaha and Sedgwick.
 
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John Marchwick said:
The Pittsburgh Zoo posted an update on their elephant calf on Instagram and apparently, she’s doing a lot better now. She was under guarded condition if I recall
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That’s a really odd way for them say she’s doing well. Having a “guarded” prognosis means that they’re still in a delicate/emergency state where treatments can be helping or just keeping them alive. In my experience, I haven’t ever heard a patient doing well and also being in a guarded condition all at the same time. It’s like an oxymoron. It does raise some concern as to the care or outcome of this poor calf, in my opinion at least.
 
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