North American Asian Elephant Reproduction

Not an update, per say, but to add on to something I mentioned earlier...

I'm now almost POSITIVE Tupelo at Houston is pregnant, and is closer to calving than not. After comparing a number of videos of her over the past several months, she has shown a small amount of mammary development, but more notably, she is getting HUGE. Compared from May to now, she has gotten noticeably wider and rounder, and in the most recent pictures and videos I've seen of her, she is downright rotund, with the distinct "full circle" stomach curve many pregnant elephants show. Houston tends to announce its pregnancies between 1 and 3 months before their elephants give birth, and I would not be at all surprised to see them doing just that within the next 2-5 months.
 
Hyak_II said:
Not an update, per say, but to add on to something I mentioned earlier...

I'm now almost POSITIVE Tupelo at Houston is pregnant, and is closer to calving than not. After comparing a number of videos of her over the past several months, she has shown a small amount of mammary development, but more notably, she is getting HUGE. Compared from May to now, she has gotten noticeably wider and rounder, and in the most recent pictures and videos I've seen of her, she is downright rotund, with the distinct "full circle" stomach curve many pregnant elephants show. Houston tends to announce its pregnancies between 1 and 3 months before their elephants give birth, and I would not be at all surprised to see them doing just that within the next 2-5 months.
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Was recently thinking the same thing when the zoo posted photos of her smashing her pumpkin.
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What do you think about the odds of both her and Tess being pregnant? I haven't seen many photos of Tess recently, however, given that Tilly and Joy are a year apart I would personally feel it's highly likely Tess could be pregnant and due some time next summer. That is unless they've retired Tess from breeding.
 
A couple months ago I was at the Cincinnati Zoo and Saba and Jati where matting!!!! Hopefully a baby coming soon! Also the Cincinnati Zoo is not trying to breed its elephants in till the new habitat opens up but looks like that did not entirely work.;)
 
Mai Thai said:
A couple months ago I was at the Cincinnati Zoo and Saba and Jati where matting!!!! Hopefully a baby coming soon! Also the Cincinnati Zoo is not trying to breed its elephants in till the new habitat opens up but looks like that did not entirely work.;)
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Jati hasn’t had a calf since 1998, and I’m pretty sure she has been breeding regularly with Sabu for several years now and no calf, so it’s pretty likely that she’s not pregnant and is post reproductive at this point :(
 
NOVAElephantEnthusiast said:
What do you think about the odds of both her and Tess being pregnant? I haven't seen many photos of Tess recently, however, given that Tilly and Joy are a year apart I would personally feel it's highly likely Tess could be pregnant and due some time next summer. That is unless they've retired Tess from breeding.
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I strongly suspect Tess is pregnant as well. Houston definitely seems to be pushing both to breed all they can from Thai since he isn't exactly young anymore, and also really working to expand the herd. Tess seems to hide her pregnancies fairly well and she's also actively nursing a calf now, so going off of appearance alone I couldn't really say one way or the other, but like you said, given past patterns, she is more than likely pregnant.

If her and Tupelo are indeed pregnant, and all goes well, 2021 will really be a bumper crop year for Houston. The herd will go up to its largest ever at 13 animals with 5 animals under 5, they'll have their first ever live second generation birth, and they'll have a coveted intact three generation matriline as well!
 
Animals R AMAZING! said:
Jati hasn’t had a calf since 1998, and I’m pretty sure she has been breeding regularly with Sabu for several years now and no calf, so it’s pretty likely that she’s not pregnant and is post reproductive at this point :(
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I was not aware of the fact that post-menopausal elephants still engage in mating behavior. Is there any data about whether elephants mate for reasons other than to procreate, like dolphins and chimpanzees do?
 
imaginarius said:
I was not aware of the fact that post-menopausal elephants still engage in mating behavior. Is there any data about whether elephants mate for reasons other than to procreate, like dolphins and chimpanzees do?
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Jati is likely still cycling, just unable to conceive.

Actually most cows will cycle into their late 40's/early 50's, it's usually uterine pathologies that stop them from getting pregnant, not age.

While I can't comment anything for certain, some bull elephants definitely seem to mate just "for fun", since they will breed cows that are old, flat liners, not cycling, or pregnant, or when held in bachelor groups, will "breed" other, sub dominant bulls.
 
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