Elephants????

05-01-2011

Yes and get the hook poked into her for having the nerve to protest about her off spring being taken away to be flogged and electrocuted all in the name of good honest family entertainment, it makes my f. ing blood boil.

05-01-2011

Re Whipsnade - I do not think there is any justification for chaining Karishma during her birth. True, she does not have any related females in the herd there, but as far as I know she has bonded very well with Mya and Aziza, who are both very experienced with babys (Aziza being a 3-times-mother and Mya being the aunt for Aziza`s calves). If you look at experiences from other zoos, unrelated, experienced, bonded females do as well as midwifes then related ones.

Actually, Thi from Chester (killed the first calf and rejected the second) only raised her third calf, Sithami, because unrelated female Sheba was present during birth, supported Thi and teached her being a mother. Putting Karishma with Mya and Aziza for the birth may not have been risk-free, but the odds would have been good. Plus, it seems chaining females and restricting their movements so much can cause birth complications and even stillbirths. Unchained females have a lesser stillbirth rate and fewer rejections happen, I have seen a study about this.

Does anyone really know for sure that the 2 experienced females at Whipsnade are no longer chained for their births? I wouldn`t be so sure about this.

05-01-2011

Ditto to that!

zoo elephant births
05-01-2011

Zoos, like schools and other institutions, often make the rules more important than the child or animal that the rule is supposed to serve, so if chaining is the "protocol" I don't think it matters whether the animal is a primipara or not. I don't know very much about that zoo, but, like I said, rules very often are rules.

05-01-2011

No, I wondered about that too.

I believe one factor which may have caused them to implement chaining with Karishma was because another first time female, 'Noorjahan' at Twycross was apparently aggressive toward her calf when it was born last year, and this would have made the Whipsnade staff more cautious- that's only my feeling though.

The two adult females at Twycross were also chained for the birth of their first(and so far only) calves.

05-01-2011

Is there any chance those of you that want to discuss the chaining of Elephants start a new thread as,Chester does not chain its Elephants when they give birth and the discussion has no place on a thread about when the next Elephant birth will happen at Chester.

Rant over!!!!

05-01-2011

This thread has been moved as it has been pointed out to me that Chester zoo NEVER has or NEVER WILL chain any of their elephants.
Therefore the thread has been moved to avoid any confusion.

05-01-2011

Actually Kiang, your statement is not true. Thi was chained at least during her second birth (Karha) and the keepers prevented her from killing her, though she rejected it. She was planned to be chained for Sithami`s birth too but labor began in the morning after she had been just released from the chaines into the herd, and then she gave birth in the herd and Sheba took care of all issues much better then any human could have.

06-01-2011

Yassa and all members, my apologies, my wording is wrong.
The management at Chester have said through another member here it is "something the zoo does not do".
I have interpreted incorrectly, apologies for the misunderstanding on my part.

06-01-2011

Chester may well have chained Elephants in the past,but the policy now is not to chain them at all!!!