North American Asian and African Elephant Populations: Discussion and Speculation

[John Marchwick]

It was speculated Luna had a miscarriage. No zoo confirmed what elephant did and all that was confirmed was from @E Maximus when they stated “One of the girls you have mentioned here has miscarried so they are out of the running.” In a reply to @Nile Hippo Expert when they stated the African Elephant elephants they knew of that were pregnant were the five Sedgwick girls, Luna and Kianga, and 6 others that haven’t been confirmed yet.

Disney themselves never publicly stated either one of their girls miscarried. Which the reason why some including myself that why I thought it was Luna was

1.) cause of this article that stated the Sedgwick County Zoos 5 African elephants were all pregnant, and than afterward E Maximus replied with that quote I shared above. On the Move

2.) there was some recent update before that regarding Kianga’s pregnancy and that was it occurred via AI according to a Disney cast member and how her pregnancy was progressing according to @Yazziel

But for the record, it was never publicly confirmed by any zoo who was the African elephant miscarried.

 

[Frankie_number_1_fan]

I’m bringing this up again since it has been said that apparently Luna had a miscarriage. But this blog still says that theres two calves on the way due in 2025. I guess well wait and see. Look at Nadirah after confirming her pregnancy on the show the park went radio silent all the way up to Corra’s birth.

Disney Food Blog on Instagram: "BABY ELEPHANT CORRA in Animal Kingdom just turned ONE YEAR OLD!!! We’ll all enjoy a mini mango pie in your honor today, Corra! Head on over to ride Kilimanjaro Safari in Disney’s Animal Kingdom so you can catch a glimpse of Corra and wish her a happy birthday! Oh, and in case you need some more happy news, Animal Kingdom is expecting two MORE baby elephants in 2025 Cuteness overload!!! "

I'd say it would be fair to say that it is very possible DAK never confirmed the miscarriage with whoever is running the blog. In a similar birthday post made by someone directly affiliated with DAK there was no mention of any pregnancies.
I suppose it is possible for one of the Sedgewick cows to have miscarried in-between the time of the article's reporting and release, but that feels like a slim possibility imo.
However due to DAK's lack of transparency we will have to wait and see.

 

[John Marchwick]

I'd say it would be fair to say that it is very possible DAK never confirmed the miscarriage with whoever is running the blog. In a similar birthday post made by someone directly affiliated with DAK there was no mention of any pregnancies.
I suppose it is possible for one of the Sedgewick cows to have miscarried in-between the time of the article's reporting and release, but that feels like a slim possibility imo.
However due to DAK's lack of transparency we will have to wait and see.

it was never confirmed if Disney was the facility that an elephant miscarried. Hence the point above. It was speculated off by someone else’s statement. There hasn’t been any zoo that confirmed which one of their elephants miscarried.

Why is it only a slim possibility one of Sedgwick county zoos elephants miscarried? Elephant breeding is challenging, hence the lack of transparency with zoos sometimes. Look at Oklahoma City Zoo with Asha miscarrying a couple months ago. And look at ABQ BioPark who just had a stillborn calf born. Not all births go smoothly and end happily unfortunately. People just need to wait till these zoos confirm themselves what happened.

 

[Frankie_number_1_fan]

it was never confirmed if Disney was the facility that an elephant miscarried. Hence the point above. It was speculated off by someone else’s statement. There hasn’t been any zoo that confirmed which one of their elephants miscarried.

Why is it only a slim possibility one of Sedgwick county zoos elephants miscarried? Elephant breeding is challenging, hence the lack of transparency with zoos sometimes. Look at Oklahoma City Zoo with Asha miscarrying a couple months ago. And look at ABQ BioPark who just had a stillborn calf born. Not all births go smoothly and end happily unfortunately. People just need to wait till these zoos confirm themselves what happened.

The article by the AZA was the most recent confirmation of their pregnancies, and it was later that day that there was a statement of a miscarriage. While it is certianly a possibility that one of the Sedgewick cows miscarried, it just feels very unlikely that the timing would match up. We have had no updates from a credible source regarding Luna's pregnancy as well.
We will have to just wait and see though, as I don't see either facility announcing a miscarriage for a while, if at all.

 

[tigris115]

Question

When elephants miscarry/have still births, is there a period of needed emotional recovery?

I ask because elephants seem like intelligent enough animals where it would be needed

 

[HawkAlot]

Keep in mind as well, Sedgwick made a very very big point of announcing their elephant pregnancies on a public, official level from very early on in the gestation period. Right down to when to expect the calves. They even went so far as to add on the 5th one once they were sure about that one too.

DAK has BARELY said anything about their pregnancies, and from a lot of word of mouth/off the record stuff. I remember when the big topic was trying to narrow down exactly who was pregnant, because DAK hadn't said much more than they had 2 or 3 pregnant cows in a passing comment.

I think it's relatively safe to say that if one of Sedgwick's cows had a miscarriage, they'd make that public knowledge in short order. They have the whole community's eyes on them in Witchita alone, not to mention in the greater zoo world. They'd be making a horrible PR move to get past the anticipated birth windows with 4/5 expected calves and trying to sweep the 5th under the rug.

That said - you just never truly know unless you're there/in the know!

 

[The Horse Boy]

Hey I see that much of the african elephant outdoor habitat at zoo tampa has wooden poles for part of the cable fencing, instead of the usual galvanized metal ones. Can they still withstand the strength of bulls if they have a mature one on site?

I suppose they could turn them into reinforced steel posts for bulls if they overhaul and expand the african safari area in the coming years like when they announced their master plan a couple years ago.

 

[E Maximus]

Hey I see that much of the african elephant outdoor habitat at zoo tampa has wooden poles for part of the cable fencing, instead of the usual galvanized metal ones. Can they still withstand the strength of bulls if they have a mature one on site?

I suppose they could turn them into reinforced steel posts for bulls if they overhaul and expand the african safari area in the coming years like when they announced their master plan a couple years ago.

They have a mature bull on site, Sdudla. They wouldn’t be able to house him if they couldn’t withstand him per USDA and AZA.

 

[The Horse Boy]

I s

They have a mature bull on site, Sdudla. They wouldn’t be able to house him if they couldn’t withstand him per USDA and AZA.

I still don't get why they use wooden fence posts instead of steel ones like usual. But I did see the gates, barn bollards and the fencing by the private outdoor pens around the barn and are made of the usual galvanized metal according to pics and vids on the internet.

 

[StoppableSan]

I s

I still don't get why they use wooden fence posts instead of steel ones like usual. But I did see the gates, barn bollards and the fencing by the private outdoor pens around the barn and are made of the usual galvanized metal according to pics and vids on the internet.

Wooden barriers are used a lot of times in conjunction with metal barriers. For example, Columbus has wooden retaining walls that have held mature bulls well (e.g. Hank, Johnson, Sabu, soon Raja and Frankie when he grows up), and Bronx has wooden retaining walls for Happy and Patty's off-show yards. Oregon also uses wooden retaining walls (to an extent) for their herd, and it's held up pretty well with bulls like Packy, Samudra and Samson.

 

[The Horse Boy]

Wooden barriers are used a lot of times in conjunction with metal barriers. For example, Columbus has wooden retaining walls that have held mature bulls well (e.g. Hank, Johnson, Sabu, soon Raja and Frankie when he grows up), and Bronx has wooden retaining walls for Happy and Patty's off-show yards. Oregon also uses wooden retaining walls (to an extent) for their herd, and it's held up pretty well with bulls like Packy, Samudra and Samson.

Come to think of it I saw a pic of the dallas elephant barn that has a wooden wall structure like that. So it makes more sense now. And these should totally be bull proof ofc.

On a similar note I do think they should move sdudla to another breeding facility and replace him with mabu, callee, tendaji, or any of the young bulls that are now in bachelor herds in caldwell birmingham and elephant odyssey in sdz. They have two young cows that should enter breeding age and would need to be impregnated asap. I think their 3 older cows wpuld have more or less passed their prime.



{Note from mods - this thread continues here: North American Asian and African Elephant Populations 2025: Discussion and Speculation}