Taronga Zoo Thong Dee Is Pregnant

Right dear ... (I am atheist sorry :)).

Do these people ever get out into the real world or what? They do more damage to our environment than 1.000.000 ignorant zoo visitors combined! I would actually term this slander and the zoo or rather ARAZPA should take legal action on the newspapers that publish this kind of mediahyping bogus posing as reproductive and ecological knowledge of elephants. It is simply mega ignorance of what wildlife really are, the role zoos play in education, conservation and saving endangered species coupled with a personal extreme biased hate of zoos. Slap an injunction on the bastards ARAZPA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another issue with this type of writer ... a COMPLETE LACK OF A GOOD SENSE OF HUMOUR! :D

Some counter question: Thong Dee absolutely enjoyed the attentions of Gung. So it is sex with consent and now she is extremely happy with a baby on the way!!!! So what, human ******! Get a life and try changing the general state of affairs with the environment. Put your money where your mouth once was, cause it dropped to your toes lately.
 
@torie: thanks for posting the article, and I agree that the Greens are being absolutely preposterous with the slandering of the zoo's elephant breeding program. My beef is unrelated, and it is in regards to the size of the exhibit. I've said it on ZooBeat before, but half an acre for a herd of elephants is the same size space as many backyards here in Canada. Why don't I persuade some of my friends to allocate some space next to their barbecues for a herd of elephants? I'm obviously being sarcastic, but it is a totally worthless sized exhibit for such enormous animals.

The PAWS and Tennessee elephant sanctuaries in the U.S. give their elephants hundreds of acres to roam around in, and the percentage of foot ailments that affect those pachyderms is minute compared to the foot problems that all captive elephants always end up with in urban zoos.
 
Anyone who has bred Guinea Pigs(cavies) will know the females start to breed long before they are full grown- in fact if they're prevented from doing so until they reach adult size, their pelvic bones fuse(i think that's it) and they can't give birth to live young. I suspect there's something similar at work in Elephants, and perhaps a number of other species, too.

The animal libbers unfortunately equate Elephants, probably because of a similar lifespan, with having similar stages of development to a human, whereas of course there's no basis for doing that.
 
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I think editorial which Torie quoted was already ridiculing greens...

I feel that Greens unfairly singled out Thong Dee because she was Asian immigrant. Platypuses routinely fall pregnant young and nobody cares. I feel greens should apologise to zoo and all elephants. ;)

It was only natural for Thong Dee fell for elephant male because they both walked nude. If greens feel concerned, they can ask zoo to make trousers and skirts for elephants. And look at baboons. Disgusting! They should all wear shorts! ;)

Seriously, there are lots of real problems of animals in Australia and elephants elsewhere. What puts me off "animal lovers" is that they attacks zoos but not serious animal abuse. Maybe because zoos are easier target - it is more difficult to do something real to e.g. homeless dogs.
 
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Jurek7 said:
I think editorial which Torie quoted was already ridiculing greens...

I feel that Greens unfairly singled out Thong Dee because she was Asian immigrant. Platypuses routinely fall pregnant young and nobody cares. I feel greens should apologise to zoo and all elephants. ;)

It was only natural for Thong Dee fell for elephant male because they both walked nude. If greens feel concerned, they can ask zoo to make trousers and skirts for elephants. And look at baboons. Disgusting! They should all wear shorts! ;)

Seriously, there are lots of real problems of animals in Australia and elephants elsewhere. What puts me off "animal lovers" is that they attacks zoos but not serious animal abuse. Maybe because zoos are easier target - it is more difficult to do something real to e.g. homeless dogs.
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I'm glad we have no Bonobo in Australia then!
 
Bonobo! yeah, randy little devils!

(Since this thread has degenerated into farce, I'll add my bit.)
I reckon we should re-stage that old hippy musical "Hair", witha cast of Bonobos!
 
Steve Robinson said:
This is wonderful, wonderful news and a great tribute to some very dedicated staff - not to mention an enthusiastic Gung!

So hold your horses everyone - we're in for a long wait.
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I know, though there is a 33.3% chance that Tong Dee will deliver a stillbirth.

And since Gung and Tong Dee are both 8 and are still growing the baby might become too big and Tong Dee might have trouble delivering
 
it's hard to believe that the first elephant birth in australia will happen so soon. But let's hope the first calf is healthy and lives on fine. But there is also two other calves to been expected! and hopefully won't be too long till Tang Mo is pregnant as well.
 
This is exciting!!

Seems like only last week they were still not in Australia.

Is this the most expensive elephant birth evere???
The money that has gone into this is huge. Understanding there is an expectation for many births. There is allot riding on this first 1.
 
and thong dee's keeps getting miraculosuly older. lol. it just cracks me up that since 2006 she has gone from, i think it was 6 or 7 to twelve now. but anyway, i love tht taronga remains cautiously opimistic-very wise imo as there is going to be a HUGE focus on this birth-and the zoo is being very smart in so far that they are clearly outlining the risks involved with this birth to both calf and mother.
go taronga zoo
 
Tarongas cautioness is a good move as if anything bad happens, those who have oppossed this from the start would jump on it and use it against the zoos.
 
glyn said:
and thong dee's keeps getting miraculosuly older. lol. it just cracks me up that since 2006 she has gone from, i think it was 6 or 7 to twelve now. but anyway, i love tht taronga remains cautiously opimistic-very wise imo as there is going to be a HUGE focus on this birth-and the zoo is being very smart in so far that they are clearly outlining the risks involved with this birth to both calf and mother.
go taronga zoo
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Ahaha, yeah that's right! Supposedly over the contreversy of how young Thong Dee was that when she was pregnant it was very dangerous. Then the zoo said it was perfectly fine. But the complaints kept coming. So they observed her molars and supposedly she's more so around 11-12!
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
Ahaha, yeah that's right! Supposedly over the contreversy of how young Thong Dee was that when she was pregnant it was very dangerous. Then the zoo said it was perfectly fine. But the complaints kept coming. So they observed her molars and supposedly she's more so around 11-12!
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That can't be right. I remember reading on a numbr of occasions that one of the main conditions of the import was proof that they were captive bred elephants with a clear captive history including the birth date. So surely they would have an exact DOB.
 
Thong Dee was former street elephant though, so the records may of been hidden. Just saying. :)
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
Thong Dee was former street elephant though, so the records may of been hidden. Just saying. :)
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I remember - at the time - one had quite a bit of criticism from Thai sanctuary quarters. This goes some way to proof that no fool proof registry exists in Thailand on its captive elephants - on the streets, in sanctuaries and in zoos (the latter perhaps, no proof on my side) -. This is a most curious situation. I would expect the authorities to initiate a registry for all captive elephants in order to improve their management.

Many private people still own elephants and as commercial logging has - THANKFULLY - been outlawed in 1988, most elephants in private hands are out of work (so to speak). Curiously, they are now used to make money for their owners in other ways which becomes a big strain and stress factor on the elephants they own. Some are integrated into these sanctuaries that provide space and medical treatment, but with owners retaining ownership it is not a long term solution (they can take back their elephants anytime and the sanctuaries must pay the owners). Besides, most sanctuaries are not their for breeding or increasing the elephant numbers in Thailand (assisting in a perverse way in the complete extinction of elephants from the wild) and no IUCN accepted attempts are as yet in place to reintroduce or translocate captive elephants back to the wild.

Conservation of wild habitat is an issue with ever larger enchroaching human populations (total numbers in Thailand, including captives is ca. 4,000). Estimates are that only 1,500 exist in the wild in northern Thailand. Not exactly well protected!!!

What I am curious about is and cannot see how in the current clime sanctuaries can actually stave off the long term extinction of Asian elephants in Thailand. Only, when eco-tourism allows individuals to go on an wild elephant safari is there a local people based economy prepared to forego some *** in order to protect wild elephants. And that is not helped by visiting elephant sanctuaries one bit!

Illustrative: only 2 elephant sanctuaries come relatively unscathed out of the evaluation process: Elephant Nature Park and Elephant Conservation Center are considered up to scratch. But you be hard pressed to find any real exact info on their captive elephants and breeding statistics.

So, you can take this one back to Oz when next the anti-brigade come along!!! :D
 
oh boy, I can't wait, just a month or so till Thong Dee gives birth or earlier!!!!!!!
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
I remember - at the time - one had quite a bit of criticism from Thai sanctuary quarters.......

.....So, you can take this one back to Oz when next the anti-brigade come along!!! :D
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but kifaru bwana, but can you tell me how the australian breeding program is going to contribute any more than the sanctuaries in thailand?
 
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