Sedgwick County Zoo Sedgwick County Zoo News 2025

The Horse Boy said:
I think it's true that captive bulls will generally start breeding much earlier than in the wild. I read the mabu had his first calf at SDSP at 16 back in 2006.
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His first calf was actually first conceived in 2004, meaning he was only about 14 when he sired his first calf; a year after his (and the rest of the herd's) arrival from South Africa.
 
Jambo said:
His first calf was actually first conceived in 2004, meaning he was only about 14 when he sired his first calf; a year after his (and the rest of the herd's) arrival from South Africa.
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Is that Vus'musi? Since he was born just after these swazi elephants arrived afaik. So I guess it was just some other bull in the wild that was his dad
 
The Horse Boy said:
I think it's true that captive bulls will generally start breeding much earlier than in the wild. I read the mabu had his first calf at SDSP at 16 back in 2006.
Click to expand...

Meaning he was just 14 when he impregnated a female.

I notice that on average, Asian bulls are more successful at a younger age than Africans in zoos. Maybe it's just a luck of the draw situation, but both Bowie and Johnson sired their first calves at just 10 years old!
 
Jambo said:
His first calf was actually first conceived in 2004, meaning he was only about 14 when he sired his first calf; a year after his (and the rest of the herd's) arrival from South Africa.
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My fellow Zoochatters ... breeding at 14 - 16 is just that they are able to reproduce, yet this is far removed from the natural state where bulls do not sire offspring before late twenties and early thirties. Only at this age are they in their prime and are accepted by the mature and any cycling cows ... When bulls are younger they are just not perceived as a good suitor by your average elephant cow.

By and large what happened / happens in captivity is just an unnatural state of affairs and has only developed as all alarm bells went of ... say 3+ decades ago at the realisation that without any functional breeding groups in elephants both African and Asiatic elephants would eventually disappear from zoos in another 4 decades. That trend has been broken up in some Continents, yet is not as yet far from the ideal picture perfect frame.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
My fellow Zoochatters ... breeding at 14 - 16 is just that they are able to reproduce, yet this is far removed from the natural state where bulls do not sire offspring before late twenties and early thirties. Only at this age are they in their prime and are accepted by the mature and any cycling cows ... When bulls are younger they are just not perceived as a good suitor by your average elephant cow.

By and large what happened / happens in captivity is just an unnatural state of affairs and has only developed as all alarm bells went of ... say 3+ decades ago at the realisation that without any functional breeding groups in elephants both African and Asiatic elephants would eventually disappear from zoos in another 4 decades. That trend has been broken up in some Continents, yet is not as yet far from the ideal picture perfect frame.
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I would agree. That said, if bulls are given the opportunity to breed from a young age without being relied on and it works *shrugs* all the power to them. :p
 
I also anticipate Callee will have at least two or so more years and sire as much more babies as possible before they send him to another breeding facility and do another breeding bull replacement.
 
 
 
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