Asian Elephant - Dahlip

For many of you Canadians, Dahlip is the sire of Spike...Calgary\'s bull elephant. Photo taken May 2006.

How big are the elephant exhibits at the zoo?

A few acres each, I believe. Both the African and Asian Elephant exhibits have two yards each.

This looks like a very nice elephant yard

he's a fantastic tusker, to bad he isn't breeding anymore.

It would be nice if they used some of these bulls (Dahlip, Billy, Rama) for AI

I definately agree for Rama espicially since Packy isn't breeding anymore. Personally I think he should be transported to another facility for breeding, though obviously easier said than done.

I do not understand why Dalip, Ranchipur and Rama have not been brought to a zoo with yung females for natural mating years ago - the breeding program for the asian elephant in the US isn`t working at all, and it seems many zoos are not even making efforts to bring bulls and females suitable for breeding together.

Funnily enough, I was looking on Ele Encyc the other day at those three bulls (Dahlip, Packy and Rama) the other day (got to 'em from one of the eles on the front page somehow).

Rama's situation was the one that caught my eye as odd. He at a facility with three young cows, plus two older bulls (Packy and Tusko) and a young male calf. You say Packy is non-breeding; fair enough, they could move him in with a herd of older cows who are also not breeding. That would free space for more calves at Miami Metro and Tusko could be moved too (although he appears to be the breeding bull) since he does have five calves alive and breeding (well, two are).

Yes, perhaps keep him for AI purposes maybe, but seeing as Tusko has got offspring on the ground and Rama hasn't, it'd seem better if Rama was allowed to breed with the Miami Metro cows since he seems to be going to waste.

However, for all I know (which isn't much), there's probably a good reason why this hasn't been done.

Rant over, apologies