18 Elephants to be relocated from Swaziland to the U.S

@Elephas_Maximus can you explain your reasoning?

 

Underdeveloped tusks (and tusklessness) is an abnormal trait for African elephants, the abundance of such animals in the wild is a result of hunting & poaching pressure. Nowadays, balance must be restored somehow, or we lose a part of species' appearance.
Towards a tusk-less future

So, are there any decent African tuskers in captivity?

 

In the US, bulls Jackson and Bulwagi both sport appreciable tusks. Jackson is currently the most successful african sire in the US, and his two male calves Callee and Tsavo are both sporting appreciable tusks as well, for their ages.

Bulwagi has 3 calves, all male. Louie and Kedar both sport decent looking tusks, and Tamani, although not as impressive as is brothers, has a small set as well.

Additionally, bull Ali, although he is currently tuskless, appears to have sported fairly girthy and large tusks, however they have been trimmed down to virtually non existent. Nonetheless, the tusker genetics are still there, and he is continuing to sire calves in the US.

 

So you think destroying 18 healthy elephants is acceptable because they, as you say, have no decent tusks? That's horrible and fortunately not an opinion shared by many.

I'm all for importing them to US zoos if it means they won't be culled. The importation of the ones before seems to have worked quite well.

And several zoos keep bulls with the cows all the time except during breeding season if they don't plan to breed during that time.

Mabu has some pretty good tusks. They may have needed to trim them down some for the move to Tucson like they did Ranchipur (Asian) for his move between parks, and Mabu has been quite prolific.

 

I believe that's the speculation because Dallas' GOTS features the smaller elephant yard that was intended to house a bull.

I don't think that the bull would be constantly restricted to that yard, as flexibility in management is what makes that exhibit great!

 

They should be culled if being a part of small-tusked population, and leave more room for conspecifics with better genes.
Those 18 elephants are juveniles, right? It's possible to judge the potential size of tusks looking at the adults from same herd.

No wonder why there are so few captive specimens with long tusks - nearly all of them are imported from the wild from over-breeding populations, and were sired by small-tusked bulls.
With such large and resource-demanding animals in captivity it's extremely important to maintain a gene pool that gives normal phenotype. Long tusks are important for survival, since they're present in both genders of 2 Loxodonta species.

 

But why should elephants have long tusks? If no or small tusks helps population to cope with the poaching pressure why not let it so. And that is beyond the question if we should even interfere in this development beyond tackling the poaching problem.

 

Poaching is not an issue in Swaziland, as said in multiple press releases, hence the over-population.

Also, the foundational population in Swaziland's park system were orphan calves from a 1990's cull in South Africa... Where the offspring have demonstrated a diversity in tusk size.

In North American Zoos (and EUROPEAN) African elephants have a tendency to wear their tusks down on industrial structures in their habitat (metal, concrete, fence wires, etc), causing them in general to be shorter in both males and females.

 

Perhaps because they have concerns with the Species mixing that is done in GOS?

 

If I remember correctly the Asian Bull Ranchipur is currently separated from the females at the SD Zoo on account of his indicating that he doesn't want to be with the ladies. But he has intermingled with them in the past so you never know, he has even spent time with them during his musth (apparently it is the only time that he isn't totally afraid of their largest African.)

 

Feds say they prefer approving elephant import to Sedgwick County Zoo | The Wichita Eagle

 

The article linked above includes directions at the end on how to make a public comment to US Fish and Wildlife regarding the import. As you can guess, most comments are from anti zoo activists. I went to the site and posted a comment supporting the import and I would encourage other US based ZooChatters to do the same. Fortunately, the Fish and Wildlife rep quoted in the article says it is not a popularity contest and they do not go by quantity of responses, but only by new information of substance.

 

I'll make a comment in favor as well, this kind of thing ought not to be a popularity contest.

 

Another article about the 18 elephants :
Observer

 

The only legitimate reason I have seen for why elephants shouldn't be in captivity that is actually valid and is not worth arguing is the notion that captive elephants won't see any long lost relatives ever again, unlike how in the wild different herds can meet up at different times throughout the year. Everything else, like talking about no mud wallows and no sun and whatnot is all nonsense. Also, even if the stuff about the AZA making up death threats is true, which it could be, I think that they will still thrive in captivity.

 

I think the issue is that while elephants can thrive in captivity, it's not really easy to do. Large, intelligent animals need lots of space and enrichment, and there are/have been lots of places doing a sub-par job. But a lot of recently-built elephant exhibits look pretty good and a lot of work is put into them, so much is taken into consideration, so I can't complain.

 

I agree absolutely. People like PETA dwell in the past.

 

Yeah, that drives me nuts. A while back I was asking why there was such a huge movement for the Oregon Zoo to phase out their elephants. Usually when people focus on a specific facility, there's some logic to it, but I didn't see anything wrong with the Oregon Zoo. Another user told me that, I guess there was a bad zookeeper or something years ago and it got a lot of attention. I thought it was rather silly that people still focus on the zoo for something that happened in the past.

 

The Elephants are finally on there way to America

Omaha zoo's elephants loaded onto plane in Swaziland, should arrive in Omaha within 48 hours - Omaha.com: OMAHA METRO

 

I'm looking forward to hearing about the arrival. I'm surprised that the Zoo went and sedated the animals in order to get the ruling, I thought that they would go on and on with legal proceedings. That said I am glad they are on their way. They must be in the air by now.