They were/are planning on moving all of their elephants to White Oak afaik.
White Oak Conservation Center White Oak Conservation Center
- Thread starter okapikpr
- Start date
Mr.Ivory
Well-Known Member
Since this was never mentioned as can be seen in public records released in late March of this year, 1.1 calves were born in 2023 at White Oak named Sammy and Kumari. This same document also confirms that Shirley did not in fact pass away in 2016, and is alive as of 2023.
Pages 252 and 253 of the linked document lists the current elephants at White Oak.
file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/FWS-HQ-IA-2024-0048-0009_content%20(2).pdf
Pages 252 and 253 of the linked document lists the current elephants at White Oak.
file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/FWS-HQ-IA-2024-0048-0009_content%20(2).pdf
Outside of being featured on their website, is it true that the center is a current holder of the North Sulawesi Babirusa? If so, how many do they have and what exactly are their individual histories?
You messed up with uploading the PDF
Yeah, you have to go to the website and download the pdf yourself for access.
Jonathan Petersson
Well-Known Member
That list is not quite accurate as the facility only has 28 (8.20) Asian Elephants. The oldest four girls have stayed behind at the Ringling Center for Elephant Conservation and another one of their older females has passed away.
Yes the center currently has two North Sulawesi Babirusa but I don't know the exact details of each individual.
Cody Raney
Well-Known Member
Does anyone know if they still have Eastern Giant Eland?
Their website no longer lists them and if I remember correctly I heard that sometime in 2014-2016 they were shipped off to a facility in the Caribbean somewhere… Puerto Rico???
White Oak doesn’t seem to maintain giant eland at their Florida campus more than temporarily anymore. They’ve served as holding for the male calves produced at Miami before shipping off to IAE’s ranch of White Oak’s own ranch in Texas, where they now keep at least half of the North American population. They bought out half of the herd from IAE.
Maybe this is a question better for the “Giant Eland Left in North America” thread but does this mean anything beneficial for the future of the captive population of the giant eland or is it too late to salvage anything out of this herd?
I think it stands as a "we'll see" situation. IAE not being the sole owner, something zoos interested in the species have been pushing for for decades, is certainly a step forward. In theory, this could make things easier for other zoos to get back into the species if they so desire because half of the population is no longer tied to all of the hoops and red tape normally associated with the species. The population is quite large, really, so there are animals to go around. The question is whether any interest still exists after decades of conflict in addition to the fact that these animals already have a very specific and labor-intensive diet requirement and are prone to certain illnesses, that make them not the easiest animals to keep to begin with. There is at least one former holder that is potentially interested in acquiring them again in the future now that the ownership barrier has been partially removed, but we will see.
Cody Raney
Well-Known Member
There should be some interest left, I mean they are the world's largest Antelope, and they are gorgeous to look at to boot.
I was curious because I wasn’t sure if the animals had desirable genetic diversity to run any sort of program. Of course other than the difficult care I assume AZA’s redefinition of SSPs and zoos being averse to non program species could also be a hurdle as well.
The genetic diversity is not necessarily going to be any lower than a lot of other species that are still being actively bred and maintained in AZA zoos, even "proper" SSPs. A lot of programs have really smaller founder bases... Sometimes it has negative effects, sometimes it doesn't.
I also would not say that the AZA's redefinition of SSPs would have much of an effect on a facility's decision to house them either. The facilities that would be interested in giant eland are ones that are already active participants in the number of consortiums that have popped up for a lot of the species that have been dropped as official SSPs.
The thing is though, unless you are actually into animals, a zoo director or curator that is more interested in design or the business side will see standard elands as a satisfactory animal without any headaches to acquire.
Cody Raney
Well-Known Member
If a zoo or safari park were able to exhibit Giant Eland without IAE's interference how large would the exhibit have to be to have a large enough herd for breeding and could they be exhibited with other species?
They were exhibited with Red-Fronted Gazelles at SDZSP and a bachelor male was exhibit with a bachelor Grevy's Zebra and Southern Gerenuk (with an escape area for the Gerenuk) at SDZ.
~Thylo
Since Africa Trail in under renovation at the National Zoo it'd be great to have a small herd there in a large yard with Dama Gazelles or Scimitar Horned Oryx and Crowned Cranes. I know that Lehigh Valley Zoo has been successful in keeping Common Eland with Scimitar Horned Oryx. They could combine the old Maned Wolf/Ostrich and Addax/Dama Gazelle habitats to make it happen if they modified the barn areas accordingly.
Cody Raney
Well-Known Member
Would Giant Eland be easier to manage and care for in a zoo exhibit or in a single or mixed species safari park exhibit?