first thread for Bangladesh! "...veterinarians had examined her teeth and concluded that Pabantara was aged “around 100 years”."....I'll hold my opinion on that Gulf Times ? Qatar?s top-selling English daily newspaper - SriLanka/Bangladesh
World renowned elephant trainer Buckles Woodcock was often asked by the public about the longevity of elephants. His standard answer of 50+ years was usually greeted with disbelief by people accustomed to hearing tales like the one above. When he changed his answer to something along the lines of "...... it is said that an elephant once lived to 100 years" his inquisitors would nod their heads knowingly, convinced of his wisdom! Can anyone confirm the true age of Taronga's Jessie?
I once worked with an elephant that was believed to be in her late 90's, her mahout looked like he was a similar age (but that may have been all of the Arrack the mahouts are so fond of). I can't help with your question Steve but I find it interesting that elephants are one of few animals that tend to live longer lives in the wild then in captivity. Elephants are a difficult animal to work with and very draining both physically and mentally. I also find it intereseting that all the captive elephants that I have heard of living to their 80's and 90's have been managed traditionally, rather then western management styles which are slightly less aggressive. I'm not saying we should handle elephants traditionally, they also have a higher mortality rate in younger animals (5 - 30 years old). Just something I find interesting.
I didn't even realise there were photos from Dhaka Zoo in the Zoochat gallery! There are two photos of the elephant Pabantara there. Dhaka Zoo Gallery Member Iberthung wrote the following regarding the three elephants at the zoo I can't see a date on the webpage linked to, but there is a paper in its bibliography from 1999 so its fairly recent
I was trying to find something I've read in the past about how elephants die of starvation when they lose their final set of teeth and can no longer feed. In general terms this limits their lifespan to around 60 years or so. In captivity they can obviously be kept going longer on artificial soft foods, but ages of 100 years are in my opinion quite ridiculous. I know Wikipedia isn't very reliable in a lot of cases, but here's a quote regarding tooth replacement:
From my limited experience of aged Asiatic cows this is pretty accurate. I don't doubt that Africans would be pretty much the same. Some years ago we had an aged cow on hire to our circus. She was on her sixth set and they were just about finished. Her faeces were no longer boluses but elongated masses of very poorly digested vegetable matter. Her owners [Bullens] kept her in remarkably good condition by supplementing her diet with grain, molasses etc and spoiling her big time. It is really remarkable what some psychological support can do for elderly, intelligent animals like elephants and chimps. She was retired to the park at Wallacia where she died some time later. She was in her 60s.