I feel most captive elephant bulls are very mellow most of the time. But it's still a smart move to build enclosures to be heavy duty if the were manage bulls just in case they suddenly decide to push pull or hit the fencing and gates out of musth. Don't the electrified steel cables in most modern facilities play a huge part in that?
Well, let's be glad St Louis is very definitive in dispatching Raja there to be a backup breeder in case eveytbing goes awry on Johnson's end. I'm sure Raja will socialize and flirt very effectively with the other herd members there should Johnson have to move to another facility in near future. I know there were rumblins about him chasing down Rudy and being too aggressive towards her for her let him mount and impregnate her.
I don't know how much socialisation he got with the cows and calves at ALS, but if he didn't, that might explain why he isn't appearing to be the most sociable bull at Columbus currently.
I'm sure Raja can gladly fix that. Her reproductive window is nearly closing!
Columbus has openly stated on multiple occasions that the goal is to breed both Johnson and Raja to their girls. It is likely that they want every oppertunity they can to build up their herd, and having two bulls could (in theory of course) help achieve that goal in short order.
We shouldn't get our hopes up on Rudy. She's 23, still not pregnant and likely won't have the oppertunity to be until much later this year/early next. Short of her being an outlier, I just can't see her realistically having a calf. There is zero guarantee Raja will have any better luck with her, we all said that about Johnson and look where we are!
Unless the cows at ALS were extremely submissive, it is unlikely he was behaving like this up there. Most cows don't like overly-pushy and rude bulls. It's one thing for the young inexperienced cows to be frightened off by strong advances, but for an experienced female like Phoebe (who has been naturally bred by 4 different males now) to reject him is absolutely an indication that he's acting inappropriately.
I guess Johnson might have been the reason he hasn't bred Rudy as she was too put off by his aggressive demeanor
Good point! She likely would be more receptive to being bred once her calf is on the ground. But it sounded like he's not just being pushy in a breeding aspect, but in a general behavioral aspect as well. He seems to be a bit of a bully to everyone. Despite Phoebe being pregnant, she is a mature, confident cow and the dominant figure at the facility. If he's being too much for her in that then he's doing something wrong
I visited just two years ago, and spoke to a keeper about Tembo's situation at the orangutan complex, and one of the questions that came up was the future of their program once she passes. She (the keeper) told me they're contemplating building a new much bigger complex for breeding or bachelor groups, as I'm extremely sure the current facility isn't roomy and durable enough for bulls, let alone that is it not spacious for proper herd structures. According to Google Earth, they have a large piece of undeveloped woodland hemmed in between the shade structures by their South American area, lemur and gibbon islands and one trail besides the African savannah areas measuring roughly 3 acres. If there are no laws against building on that forest, that could certainly be bountiful to make a proper elephant habitat and barn.
It's the zoo over in Waco TX. They currently have a 1 acre space for a singular geriatric cow named Tembo.