He might be introduced just for social purposes, but aside from that, I doubt he'll be seeing them much. TES currently have older females, so Tonka will be their only bull.
North American African Elephant Population
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He might be introduced just for social purposes, but aside from that, I doubt he'll be seeing them much. TES currently have older females, so Tonka will be their only bull.
i am sure he will have the opportunity. Yes he will be their only bull. I would imagine they will share the same barn though.
Quite likely, but he'll spend most of his time by himself.
isn’t that normal though?
Yes, it's completely normal for a bull male. They live separately from the matriarchal herd and only 'visit' them for breeding.
He'll be fine. An added benefit he'll get at TES, is more space to live out his years. Alongside, of course, socialisation with new cows.
According to the San Diego Zoo Safari Parks Facebook Page, Mkhaya, a 4 year old African Elephant, is anticipated to have a full recovery from EEHV! Shes had the virus for nearly 2 weeks and I’m very excited to see that she was able to beat EEHV!
Thats awesome news!
Congrats to San Diego, as it seems like they managed to identify it early which potentially may have saved her life. The more cases of EEHV we have within captivity, the more we learn about the virus, and it's good to see some of that knowledge paying off with elephants like Mkhaya surviving the virus.
Is Fresno not looking to breed then? Or are they getting a new bull as well I wonder.
My initial assumption was that Musi already got the girls pregnant and is at SDZSP for a breeding trip but it’s also possible he didn’t get along well with Fresno’s girls and they’ll be getting a new bull.
Either way. I’m glad Musi’s back and I’m looking forward to see him reunite with the cows and interact with them. I know he had a rough relationship with Umngani back when he was a rowdy teenager so it’ll be interesting to see if/how that will change. It’s unfortunate Ndula won’t get to breed and have a female calf to build her matriline but her line will obviously still continue through her son, Musi, so oh well.
Mr.Ivory
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It would appear as though he is also being hinted as being the future breeding bull as a comment on the Instagram post asked whether Moose will be allowed the opportunity to mate with the cows and it would appear so.
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I wonder if Vui Musi is gonna be like Mabu. Mabu used to go back and forth between Reid Park and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park so I’m curious if they intend to do that with Vui Musi too and have him go back and forth between Fresno and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
Well there’s one key difference here. While Mabu is an extremely well proven bull who is socially savvy and good with the cows and calves; Musi is a young hothead who has proven to be socially problematic, and that’s WITH adult, socially savvy cows. He’s also completely unproven as of yet.
If there is anywhere in North America he would breed, it’s the WAP, but even then, I’m curious to see how things go for his integration into the herd there. By all accounts he *should* be a good breeder and socially competent bull, but I think he would’ve benefitted heavily from going into a bachelor situation for several years instead of going directly from the WAP to Fresno. He was only 11 when he arrived, and it seems like he’s essentially spent the past 7 years just terrorizing the cows and being a sh*t head due to a lack of mature male role model and appropriate social peers. Why he didn’t go to Birmingham and Fresno received a different bull, I’ll never know.
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I’ve heard about Vui Musi being a real hot head towards females. However I had a family member who visited Fresno and one of the elephant keepers when he was there just this summer that Vui Musi had been getting along with the females at Fresno so I think maybe it’s just his personality. Mabu I’ve heard has also been a hothead too however so I guess will have to wait and see.
Keepers aren't going to give out negative information like that, especially about elephants. Particularly when they're being targeted by AR people about the elephants.
true but again I was just going by from what I was told. That doesn’t mean what keeper said is true. What I DO know for a fact is Fresno this year stopped breeding their elephants.
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