Taronga's Elephants and other news!!! » Taronga Zoo

03-03-2008

It is an unusual situation to have a bull elephant's accomodation completely seperate from the females' though I can understand how this has arisen in an urban zoo with space limitations and in order to provide maximum space for both bull and cows. It should be possible to move the females back and forth without trouble at least for the present though as pointed out, complications could arise if any become unmanageable as they get older.

What about getting a 2nd young male as(permanent) company for the existing one? Not an option I suppose....

03-03-2008

Jelle: After my knowledge, there is no scientific evidence that the Herpes virus can be transmitted between elephants without physical contact. No one suggests to mix young asians with the africans in Dubbo, but under the condition that they are housed apart from each other, I don`t see any problems (the Animal Park Berlin houses both a breeding herd of asian and african elephants in the same house but physically seperated from each other, and from the 6 asian elephant calves not one died from herpes). Same for the older asian females, as long as they keep them apart. No one suggests mixing them.

By the way, they could send the 2 older africans from Dubbo to Taronga in exchange for the young asians.

03-03-2008

Also Jelle, my suggestion was if any elephant was to become unhandleable (don't think that's a real word...) Then I doubt she'd stay at Taronga. If they were not to send theem to Dubbo she'd either have to be left with the bull full time or it could seriously retsrict hands on contact with the other elephants. My point was valid and doable

03-03-2008

why would u spend tens of millions of dollars on an asian elephant enclosure and theme an entire precinct then replace them with African Elephants?
Taronga may be basing its breeding program on an unorthodox or unique set-up, but so far its unique in actually getting its animals to breed. how the new set-up will effect breeding is unknown but it may very well enhance it, and there are still a number of options open to the zoo for dealing with female elephants if they do become aggressive towards the team.
finally, as our understanding of elephant herpes is still limited it would be better if the risk to the asian elephant herd was limited by not putting them anywhere near the dubbo elephants.

taronga celebrates a chimp birth
04-03-2008

Taronga Zoo celebrates baby female chimp

04-03-2008

Sorry kelvin- Chimps are not elephants

04-03-2008

in kevin's defence the thread is taronga's elephants AND OTHER NEWS!!!! :P

04-03-2008

Lol sorry, i retract that then lol sorry kev

05-03-2008

Didn't Shiba, (the mother) have a baby only a couple of years ago?

05-03-2008

@ gyln: because the beautifully themed multi-million-dollar-enclosure is way too small for a breeding group of asian elephants with bonded females and calves of different ages from each female?

12-03-2008

an interesting allegation has been unleashed against Greens member Lee Rhiannon, a vocal and persistent critic of the zoo.
Ms Rhiannon, who based her anti-elephant import argument on the basis of being 'in the know' after working at Taronga Zoo as a keeper for 3 years in the 1970s has had her credbility knocked around. Zoo employment records show the women worked for a period of only 6 weeks as a keeper in the birds dept!
additionally, her claim to be the first women zoo keeper at the zoo has been shot down in flames too.
i always put down her 'out of touch' approach to the fact that when she worked in the industry it was sooooooooooooooo long ago. but as it turns out, she barely worked in the zoo with the animals at all!
another interesting angle on the ongoing saga, the response will be interesting from the Greens, who's public trust is declining a bit recently with other allegations against the party in NSW. bit fo a shame really as I normally vote Greens, but probably helps to emphasise they should butt out of the elephant matter for now.

12-03-2008

The Greens are like watermalons green on the outside but red under the skin.

Ian Cohan (I think that is his name) is the only true green. The rest of them dont care for the environment. Most of their policies have nothing to do with the environment, they are more closely aligned with Animal Liberation.

12-03-2008

While I wouldn't agree with this as a general thing, I know several local Green candidates who ahve a strong passion for the enviroment, Lee certainly seems to lean towards PETA style ideas. It's a shame that she has lied about her involvement at the zoo.

10-04-2008

I spent a fascinated 15 minutes yesterday watching Gung playing. He was trying to thread a rather small tyre (looked like motor-bike size) onto a tree branch BUT he was trying to do it, not with his trunk, but with his back leg! (Crazy jumbo.)

He would get it balanced, then give it a push back. It would start to fall and he would block it with his rump. At one time he even used his tail, which wasn't very effective. He seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.

Its experiences like this that make me realise just how much I don't know about elephants - complex creatures.

10-04-2008

i watched arana at WPZ last month for about an hour kicking a tyre on a rope with her back leg. it was amazing, then she would get the tyre in her mouth and throw it around, its brillaint. i agree, very complex creatures.

at taronga 2 weeks ago i saw 3 females pushing there rears into gung whilst he was atop another female- they all wanted a peice of the action! though dont beleive any were cycling.