Chester Zoo - Elephant calf - Raman sad news, hopefully it isn't anything contagious towards the other elephants
Only if it will effect the other animals, as he was a male calf. Also I wonder if this is linked to why he and his extended family have not been out with the rest of the herd for some time.
I sincerely hope it is not the dreaded Herpes Virus. Chester's group have thankfully been free of it up until now- but the rather sudden death of this two year old makes me wonder?
Hopefully its not, the breeding at Chester ha sbeen really strong over the years lets hope it continues.
Whipsnade have been very unlucky with 3 calfs dieing of the herpes virus 2 of which were female. This only leaves Euan the oldest male calf who is 5/6.I think reading from another thread Kaylee may be pregnant which will hopefully bring the breeding herd back on its feet. But very unlucky blow for Chester deaths like this must be terrible for the Elephant Keepers.
The article says: I don't think this incident has any link to the seperation because it says he was only being monitored since Tuesday
That is what I picked up on- very rapid, only 48 hours then suddenly dead.... I think the Whipsnade calves also died like that.
If I was the vet running these tests then alarm bells would be starting to ring in my head. Doesn't look good for Chesters herd
Lets wait until we hear something official before jumping the gun, it doesn't look good but than any death doesn't in an animal so young.
Agreed, its jumping the gun a bit. I really hope he died from something else, though of course its a disaster that he has died anyway. Breeding Asian elephants really does seem fraught with so many pitfalls.
It is but Chester have births to look forward too, and hopefully they will have females meaning they can stay with the herd a bit longer or maybe forever. There building some good family lines at chester, which helps with group dynamics.
Perhap this is misinformation on my part, but i thought the elephant that carried the virus to the UK was Emmett at Whipsnade and as far as I know, none of Chester's herd have been into contact with him or the other ZSL elephants (apart from Thi when she was at London years ago) Is any of that correct?
That is correct. What's worrying is the fact that Emmet has fathered so many calves via AI, including Twycross.
Such sad news - here's hoping it doesn't turn out to be the virus and other members of the herd are affected.
