Australian and ( NZ) Elephants news and discussion

I am pretty sure the reasons why Melbourne and Taronga have stopped elephant breeding are:

1. They are afraid to produce more bull calves and dont know what to do with them once they grow up.

2. They need AI to get their females pregnant and that is incredibly expensive and overall a huge effort. Remember that the vets to perform the procedure must be flown in from overseas. The elephants need extensive training, daily blood tests, and all needs to be coordinated with perfect timing: vets from overseas, fresh semen in good quality from the bull, blood tests. If just one thing goes wrong its over for the next couple of months but the costs must still be paid. And it can take serveral tries before the female is expecting. No zoo in the world has ever managed to archive natural birth rates through AI. Its just too much work and too expensive. The lack of calves in Australia is the norm and not the exeption when zoos rely on AI.

 

To be fair, I think Taronga Zoo/Taronga Western Plains have done a good (or at least adequate) job of breeding so far. As I’ve already said, the birth intervals are necessary due to the limited space of holding facilities; and the intervals of around seven years aren’t detrimental to the cow’s reproductive health. All three reproductively viable cows have had calves in the last three years, two of which were through natural breeding. On the whole scale of things, AI is an expense; but not a significant one for zoos of this size. The gate takings from the first weekend alone of the calf’s media debut would probably recoup them; and I imagine a lot of the blood tests are routine work for reproductive cycle monitoring anyway, that are carried out in house at Taronga’s vet lab.

Most of Melbourne Zoo’s pregnancies were achieved on the first attempt. Porntip had at least one failed cycle in 2015, prior to Kanlaya’s conception in 2016; but they stuck with it. It’s worth noting as well that they chose to do AI (with Perth Zoo’s bull). They could have done natural breeding with Gung. Genetic diversity is all well and good; but if the costs were prohibitive, then they would have gone with the Gung again (who is still a suitable mate).

 

I suppose the other thing to consider is with infrequent breeding, the impact it will have on establishing matrilineal lines. Being a matriarchal society, (surviving) female calves are essential to continuing multi-generational herds. So far we have just two matrilineal lines:

Dokoon (1993) > Mali (2010)

Porntip (1992) > Kanlaya (2018)

Despite their many tragedies, one of the best examples of a multi-generational herd is the Hi Way family at Chester Zoo, with the family initially based around Thi (1982), her daughter, Sithami (1997-2018) and their calves; and now Thi (1982), Sundara (2004) and their calves. Thi was 15 years old when Sithami was born, and additionally factoring in Sithami’s young age at her first birth, meant a herd had time to develop.

Dokoon was 17 years old when Mali was born, so this could easily be achieved here; and with Porntip, who was 26 years old when Kanlaya was born, assuming Porntip reaches a decent age and they don’t faff around when it comes to breeding with Kanlaya.

With care of calves shared between females, this isn’t the be all and end all (Mek Kapah is close to Dokoon for example); but the strongest bonds are invariably between mother and daughter.

 

Does anyone know Mek Kapah's DOB? Is there a reason she's never bred or was it just Bong Su's inability to breed?

 

Its a bit of a shame having a cow which can to add to the breeding program, I also would like to know what is going to happen to Auckland zoos young cow are they planning to breed her?

 

Mek Kepah was born 1973 in the wild (Malaysia).

As far as I’m aware there was no biological reason Mek Kapah could not have reproduced when she was younger, except for Bong Su not knowing how to mate). By the time the AI was implemented in Australian zoos in 2008, she was 35 years old and too old.

To date there have been at least two attempts at AI with Anjalee (in 2017). Both were unsuccessful. There is a link to a document on this here:

Asian Elephant AI at Auckland Zoo [Auckland Zoo]

It’s interesting to note that the semen imported for AI came from Australia (and an Indian elephant bull); as opposed to a Sri Lankan elephant bull from a European zoo, meaning the zoo were planning to hybridise the two subspecies.

One of the biggest losses to the breeding programme is the failure to breed from Burma (1982) at Auckland Zoo. There’s a document from 1994 that said they were looking into AI (with Kashin); but this wasn’t attempted with Burma until the 2000’s - again unsuccessfully.

 

The people who did the AI on Anjalee were they the same German team that did the AI in oz?

 

It doesn’t say in the link (as the document only concerns the import of elephant semen); but I imagine it would have been Thomas Hildebrandt’s team, as they’re the foremost experts in this field and were behind the many successes in Australia.

Here’s the document from 1994 which mentions (briefly) plans to do AI with Kashin at Auckland Zoo: New Zooland | New Zealand Geographic

“Kashin has arthritis, says Emerson, who is worried about possible plans to artificially inseminate her.”

Aside from her arthritis, we now know the bigger issue would have been Kashin’s age. She was born 1968, so would have been too old at 26 years to initiate a first pregnancy. It’s a shame they didn’t concentrate attempts on AI with Burma, who was 12 years old at the time. Instead, this was left for another decade until she too was in her mid-20’s.

 

I guess the other young cow that Auckland zoo wanted to import will never happen now bringing in two at the same time if possible would of been better!

 

I doubt it. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there was also an unsuccessful attempt to import by Auckland Zoo to import a young female Indian elephant in 2005 (in conjunction with the eight elephants imported by the Taronga and Melbourne Zoos): Anti-social elephant costs zoo $100,000, delays plan

It’s disappointing that Taronga or Melbourne Zoo couldn’t have just taken one less female (with one of theirs going to Auckland Zoo), especially since neither zoo has bred their females to the extent they could have done.

 

I think you'll find that the reason Auckland didn't get elephants in that import was because Auckland changed its mind about being part of the breeding program. If I recall, back when all this was going on I was told Gung was originally supposed to go to Auckland also. Taronga still had Heman back then and planned to use AI exclusively. They only took Gung because Auckland pulled out of the entire import. Hence, Taronga's new exhibit had no facilities for a bull.

In my opinion, every action (or lack thereof) that Auckland has taken indicates there is no real priorities to breed elephants there.

 

@toothlessjaws You are correct Gung was going to Auckland but pulled out taking him!

 

That’s really interesting. I never knew that. I’ve found an article here from 2004, which indeed confirms the plans to import 1.1 elephants: Zoo rejects claim elephants abused

“One bull elephant and a cow, aged between 5 and 8 years, are destined to arrive at the zoo by early next year.

The elephants are part of a contingent of nine being shipped from Thailand to Australia and New Zealand. The others are going to Sydney's Taronga Zoo and Melbourne Zoo.”

The idea of importing a bull and establishing a herd came up again in 2010: Elephant expansion at Auckland Zoo

“A $13 million extension to Auckland Zoo has been given the thumbs up - which could bring the only elephant herd in Australasia to New Zealand.

Auckland City Council's arts, culture and recreation committee has endorsed a proposal to enlarge the zoo's existing enclosure to six times its size, which would incorporate two areas of Auckland's Western Springs Park.

The proposed areas, which run adjacent to the zoo's current elephant enclosure, will include an exercise area, a new elephant bull house, a public viewing area and boardwalk.

The extra space could take a herd of up to 10 new elephants, and the zoo is in talks with another zoo in Asia to bring a herd over.”

I assume these plans folded due to public outcry over ratepayers money being spent on elephants. I’ll admit it seems unnecessary to bring in a herd; when they could have imported 1.2 (or even 1.1) to join Burma and then breed from there.

 

I always thought Auckland were half hearted with there part in the elephant breeding program its like they were half in the door but never really stepping into it. Lets hope that they still can breed the young cow they have

 

I suppose their lack of progress has been at least half down to luck, at least in the last five years. Their plans were to have Nandi at the zoo in 2016. The fact she wasn’t able to be imported was largely out of their control. There were two attempts at AI in 2017. Had one of these attempts worked, they could well have had a calf by now.

If it’s possible, I still feel it’d be better to source semen from a Sri Lankan elephant bull in Europe; as opposed to using an Indian elephant bull from Australia like on previous attempts. I assume the biosecurity restrictions are more problematic to negotiate (as well as distance), but who knows what status hybrids will have in decades to come. It’s probably safe to assume the zoos aren’t preoccupied with it at the moment as even the Taronga and Melbourne Zoo advertise their elephants as Asian elephant. They could specify that they’re Indian elephants, but they choose not too.

 

Subspecies doesn't matter, especially for a facility like Auckland. Some of the most prolific lines in Europe and Norh America are of a mixed Maximus x indicus lineage. Moreover, there actually aren't any pure Sri Lankan bulls in europe anymore (there are currently a handful of cows, and a large number of first, second and third generation hybrids, but no pure bulls).

Additionally, Asian elephant semen does not ship well, it is unable to be frozen, and does not have good longevity, even with the best preparation and extenders. It makes absolutely no sense for them to get semen from Europe, when it is much cheaper, quicker, and will likely to be more successful getting semen from one of the bulls in Australia.

 

I believe Whipsnades ex bull Emmen was used to AI a cow some years ago in Israel resulting in a live calf not sure how many hours it took to travel to do the on the whole

 

Ya well see here's the thing. Between the UK and Israel its only about 3800km as the crow flies. From the time the semen was collected to the time the cow was inseminated, it was very likely under 24 hours. New Zealand, on the other hand, is almost 19,000km away, 5 times the distance. The semen, from the time it leaves the bull to the time it enters the cow, it would be a day and a half at minimum, and potentially up to 2 and a half days. I'm not saying its impossible, but logistically, it makes absolutely no sense at all.

I read it once, but I can't remember for the life of me from where, some published source, but if I recall correctly, Asian elephant semen only maintains relatively good quality for I think it was about 8 odd hours, even with extenders, and is basically the biggest contributing factor as to why there aren't any AI attempts from European bulls and North American cows, and vice versa.

 

I understand the time factor, There were or perhaps still are direct flights from the UK to OZ that takes 24 hours!

 

I didn’t realise there weren’t any purebred Sri Lankan bulls in Europe. With that in mind, they might as well continue to use one of the bulls from Australia to reduce the transit time of the semen.

Differentiation between the subspecies is clearly of little to no concern around the world; and it’s almost certainly due to coincidence/availability that all but one of the elephants in the Australasian region are of the Indian subspecies.

Until Anjalee’s arrival, all seven of Auckland Zoo’s previous Asian elephants had been of the Indian subspecies.