North American Asian Elephant Population 2024

Wisp O' Mist said:
Wouldn't surprise me if Connie and Hank are heading to The Elephant Sanctuary, but we'll see.
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Unless the social media team was straight up lying with their wording (which is a possibility) the post says an accredited zoo, which TES is not. I also feel like it would have been easy to dish this out as a retirement for both of them, given that its fairly public knowledge that Hank is a non-breeder and Connie is of course a geriatric individual.
 
Frankie_number_1_fan said:
Unless the social media team was straight up lying with their wording (which is a possibility) the post says an accredited zoo, which TES is not. I also feel like it would have been easy to dish this out as a retirement for both of them, given that its fairly public knowledge that Hank is a non-breeder and Connie is of course a geriatric individual.
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TES is a AZA accredited related facility.
 
E Maximus said:
AZA accredited facility, yes. However the zoos posts states an AZA accredited zoo if it was the sanctuary, I’m 99.99% positive they would of announced it was the sanctuary as only zoo moves tend to be kept hush until the other facility is ready to announce.
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You may be right.
 
Frankie_number_1_fan said:
While definitely a tough decision for Columbus' team, this move is undoubtedly the right one imo. Columbus doesn't have the advantage that other facilities do when it comes to space. It simply wouldn't be possible for them to grow their herd and tackle new social groups (IE Frankie as he matures, Johnson, etc.) with two non-breeding individuals that are incompatible with the rest of the herd. This move comes at the perfect time as moving Connie only will get harder as she ages, and Columbus will have much needed breathing room. Their new smaller outdoor yard will likely be completed before Raja's arrival and they will not have to deal with rotating Connie and Hank into that space as well.
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Are Connie and Hank held separate from the rest of the herd?
 
Yassa said:
Not unexpected, but the announcement is surely misleading - Hank and Connie are surely sent to a zoo that acts as a retirement home because Hank is not showing any breeding behavoir, but the press release sounds as if he moves to another zoo to sire more calves. Is it so difficult to be honest?!
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I don't think anything in the article sounded dishonest. It never specifically stated that Hank would be entering a breeding relationship, and the move does "continue contributing to efforts to help keep elephants in North American zoos genetically diverse" by giving Columbus additional space to house the new bulls.

Yassa said:
Another thing, they could spare one transfer if Sabu just stayed at Columbus and Raja moved to Cinci instead. It makes no sense to move both bulls (except that Cinci owns Sabu and wants him back because he is easy to work with and beloved by everyone, which is not a good enough reason imo).
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Genetically, it makes more sense to pair Sabu, a potential founder, with the newly imported girls at Cincy, than it does to pair him with the less genetically valuable Columbus girls, while Raja is still a valuable enough bull to make moving for a breeding rec a worthwhile decision (even if it's with an overrepresented herd).

E Maximus said:
I honestly wouldn’t be suprised if they did end up somewhere for Hank to be used as an AI donor but honestly can’t think of anywhere that could handle him annd Connie except for Tulsa.
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Miami or Los Angeles could possibly accommodate them too?
 
Truly wonderful news! OKC is absolutely setting themselves up to become one of the true power houses in North American Asian Elephant reproduction/husbandry.

Multiple mature breeding bulls who are socially integrated both with each other and the cow group (assuming they are of a social nature), a genuine matriarchal group without any socially problematic unrelated cows, incredibly short calving intervals and breeding first time cows at appropriately young ages, and a very impressive habitat on top of all that!
 
Nile Hippo Expert said:
The current OKC elephant exhibit is 9.5 acres with three yards.
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lintworm said:
I am not sure how you come to this measurement. When measuring these 3 yards, they are in reality just over 3 acres in total, with the house itself being less than half an additional acre....
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The current complex is 9.5 acres, with 3.95 acres available for the elephants. The largest yard is 2.6 acres.

Bamboo and Chai to join Oklahoma City Zoo elephant family.
 
Jambo said:
The current complex is 9.5 acres, with 3.95 acres available for the elephants. The largest yard is 2.6 acres.

Bamboo and Chai to join Oklahoma City Zoo elephant family.
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It is quite irrelevant how large the whole complex is when talking about a certain animal exhibit being the largest in the country. Elephants don't use the visitor pathways, restaurants or the rhino exhibits in the same complex. Zoos are always good with coming up with nice figures to oversell their exhibits, so I would advise you to always double-check these statements, especially when they sound wrong. Even claiming the largest yard is 2.6 acres is a (slight) overestimate when actually measuring it.

It is not something only OCZ does, Omaha has a figure claiming Lied's Jungle is twice the actual size and my home zoos claims to have a chimpanzee enclosure of nearly one hectare, but includes the water moat to get to that figure...
 
lintworm said:
It is quite irrelevant how large the whole complex is when talking about a certain animal exhibit being the largest in the country. Elephants don't use the visitor pathways, restaurants or the rhino exhibits in the same complex. Zoos are always good with coming up with nice figures to oversell their exhibits, so I would advise you to always double-check these statements, especially when they sound wrong. Even claiming the largest yard is 2.6 acres is a (slight) overestimate when actually measuring it.

It is not something only OCZ does, Omaha has a figure claiming Lied's Jungle is twice the actual size and my home zoos claims to have a chimpanzee enclosure of nearly one hectare, but includes the water moat to get to that figure...
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When talking about OKC, you do have to include the rhino exhibits. They’re all connected and the elephants regularly get use of the rhino yards as well. The only time the elephants can’t use them as a herd is when there’s small calves as the yards are not baby proofed for elephant calves.
 
The Baylor College of Medicine has developed the first ever mRNA vaccine to treat EEHV in Asian elephants. The first dose of the vaccine was given to 40-year old Tess at the Houston Zoo and thus far is doing well post-vaccination. She will be closely monitored to see how effective the vaccine is for elephants.

Houston Zoo Elephant Receives First Ever mRNA EEHV Vaccine, The Houston Zoo
 
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