North American African Elephant Population

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Elephantelephant said:
I would dare say maybe Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
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Cheyenne Mountain rebuilt their elephant complex only 7 years ago. It’s meant to be a permanent home for their aging elephants and potentially more as seen when Missy and Kimba Lou came in late 2015 from Lee Richardson. So none of their elephants are leaving anytime soon.
 
Riverbanks zoo is phasing out elephants as of now, they are planning on sending their pair to the new exhibit in nearby Atlanta. They will be replaced by rhinos.
 
Birmingham has received two of San Diego's young bulls. Ingadze and Lutsandvo are both acclimating to their new surroundings per the Zoo Facebook page. They will be on exhibit with (presumably rotational at first) Bulwagi next month.
 
MidwestFan said:
Zoos in the US may see imports of new breeding animals per this article. I wonder which zoos and how many elephants are being planned for?

Wild-caught elephants for USA zoos - Africa Geographic
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I have mixed feelings about this. So would it be great for a sustainable population of african elephant in North American zoos. Yes it really would, but as of now the SSP seems to be a mess. Only a few males are breeding and many breeding bulls are not in breeding situations. Zoos are reluctant to move animals around and their have been few births even from newer imports. So importing new elephants without taking any action to address these systemic issues is problematic.

I imagine this will not be as large an import as the last one to dallas/Wichita/omaha. Yet their are not many large exhibits for breeding age elephants that are currently unoccupied. I would imagine this would lead to the consolidation of older females at zoos such as Atlanta & Milwaukee to free up some space.
 
The American population does not need new imports. The daft idiots managing the SSP and individual facility managers just need to pull their heads out of their own asses, have a good look at europes program, and get their shiitake together. There is absolutely ZERO need for new imports, we have so many founders, especially bulls, that are completely unrepresented. New imports won't do a single thing if the management style doesn't change.
 
Hyak_II said:
The American population does not need new imports. The daft idiots managing the SSP and individual facility managers just need to pull their heads out of their own asses, have a good look at europes program, and get their shiitake together. There is absolutely ZERO need for new imports, we have so many founders, especially bulls, that are completely unrepresented. New imports won't do a single thing if the management style doesn't change.
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Completely agreed. A great strategy would be for most of the elephant holding zoos to agree to shift animals around into 3 categories: bull holding zoos (like birmingham), older cow zoos (Milwaukee) and lastly breeding situations. It would be helpful for those breeding institutions to have 2 unrelated bulls as well, as Omaha & Sedgwick have done (hopefully that is successful). Zoos need to breed their females earlier and rely less on ai. Also I wish somewhere such as the elephant center in florida had worked out, as that would have been a great place to house many breeding age elephants.
 
nczoofan said:
I have mixed feelings about this. So would it be great for a sustainable population of african elephant in North American zoos. Yes it really would, but as of now the SSP seems to be a mess. Only a few males are breeding and many breeding bulls are not in breeding situations. Zoos are reluctant to move animals around and their have been few births even from newer imports. So importing new elephants without taking any action to address these systemic issues is problematic.

I imagine this will not be as large an import as the last one to dallas/Wichita/omaha. Yet their are not many large exhibits for breeding age elephants that are currently unoccupied. I would imagine this would lead to the consolidation of older females at zoos such as Atlanta & Milwaukee to free up some space.
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Atlanta may take a maximum one elephant. Robin and Belle from Riverbanks Zoo are supposed to move here. Maybe some older cow would be good to move to Hogle Zoo. They have been searching for a third elephant for several years. I think that if new elephants are imported, it would be best to place them in the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. There is also the possibility of replacing older cows with new ones (Indianapolis-Tombi, Maryland-Anna, North Carolina-Rafiki, Nekhanda, Toledo-Renee, Twiggy, Cleveland-Moshi, Martinique, Kallie, Shenga or Dallas-Gypsy, Jenny, Congo, Kamba). It is important that North American zoos begin to cooperate. Many bulls are placed outside breeding cows, even though they are genetically valuable. Many cows do not have a breeding partner. Importing new elephants will not solve this situation, but perhaps at least these new elephants will multiply.
 
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