Nature has not evolved around cuddly-non cuddly, beautiful-ugly et al thankfully! All living creatures deserve our equal understanding and concern. I find these "value" questions a bit obsolete myself.
Thanks for doing this cat-man! looks pretty even so far, I love elephants all round both species. I like them for different things though. Asians almost have that god-like beauty and majesticness. But africans well they are so big and some have just unbelievable eye-catching tusks. Though my vote would have to go to Asians. Good thing there hasn't been I don't like elephants vote yet. ( no one do it now just to tick me off!)
I prefer Asians, they look more "friendly" and less imposing than the Africans. Not saying that i dislkie Africans though!
I do think Africans are more impressive. I think it's because they're bigger and are more what you'd expect an elephant to look like with the larger ears and that. Also, it's fun watching the calves trying to run with their ears out, they look really out of proportion . Although saying that, I do think Asian calves have more of a cute factor.
African And Asian Elephants Together I am in awe of both African and Asian elephants. But I think the absolute best zoo exhibit is one that has both together, as the Philadelphia Zoo and several others have successfully done in the past.
the problem with the two species being kept together is that some diseases may spread, I'm not very familiar on that topic though.
Where's the Dwarf Elephant option? And @dragon(ele)nerd: shame on you! I always thought of you as a die-hard elephant fan, and now you can't come up with EEHV ...? jk http://www.elephant.se/elephant_herpes_virus.php?open=Elephant diseases The question why or why not to keep loxodonts and Asian elephants together and where this was and maybe still is the case has been disputed in various threads here; just use the "Search" option.
I thought at first it was the herpes virus but I never got any confirmation, I'm reading up about it now!
I just voted for the Asians. Why? I like the Africans but for some reason I feel more attracted to the Asians. Perhaps because you will find the Asian elephant more in zoos then the Africans, and therefore I watched Elephas maximus more then Loxodonta africana? I don't know. About EEHV: There are two types of herpes found at elephants, one for each species. But African elephants can carry both types! So, if you keep both species the virus can be spread from the Africans to the Asians! About mixed exhibits: Both species never met each other in the wild. So why keeping both in one enclosure or in two next to each other?
The Philadelphia Zoo kept both species together without problems for forty years. Why should their not meeting in the wild make a difference? In life, we do many things that we would not do if we, as humans, lived in the wild. Why should we restrict animals to do only what nature intended?
the only reason most zoos (not all) mix eles of the different species is if they have say 1 african and 3 asian
1. Said statement about EEHV is incorrect, as 6 variants exist and the transmission can occur vice versa. Why not take a look at the link? 2. Various mixed species exhibits in zoos consist of species that would probably never meet each other in the wild. So what, if it works?
