I was wondering. What are some zoos that have a long standing breeding program for elephants that has really stood out from others, and have had many successful births?
In the US, there honestly isn't a single breeding program that truly stands out currently. Asians: Oregon historically had a very successful and prolific herd, however their last birth of that era was in 1994. They were on the right track again with Samudra and Lily, but with the death of Tusko their breeding outlook is up in the air at the moment. Houston is also a zoo that has produced a very large number of calves, however the vast majority have died, and they currently only have 3 surviving calves out of their breeding program, all 6 or younger. That said, they do still have two breeding females (plus a 6 year old female), so assuming they can keep future calves alive, I can see Houston making a decent contribution to the breeding program. St. Louis is arguably the only zoo in the entire United States that has a fairly strong breeding program. They have had four births, all female, in the past 10 years, and I would not be at all surprised to see them continue this trend. With 4 females now of breeding age, I have very high hopes for them in the future. Of course, there is also African Lion Safari in Canada, which has hands down the absolute BEST zoo based breeding program for Asian Elephants currently in North America. They have had a WHOPPING 17 BIRTHS in the past 25 years, with 16 of those still alive today, and 15 of them still in North America. Of those, 10 are first generation calves, and 6 are second or third generations. Currently at the park, they have 12 females (4 are post/non reproductive) and 4 males, two of which are active breeders. Africans: There is really only 1 zoo in the history of North America that is really prominent for African Elephant production, and that is the San Diego Wild Animal Park, with 12 births over the past 12 years, 11 of which are still alive. There are a number of other zoo's that have had decent breeding success (Disney, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Lowry Park, etc...) and a smattering that have very good future prospects (e.g; Fresno Chaffee, Reid Park), but nothing that really screams WOW LOOK AT ALL THE ELEPHANT S WE'VE BRED. Now of course, things are much different in Europe. Asians practically breed like flies, and Africans, at facilities that are actually attempting to breed, are generally decently prolific as well. I couldn't even bother listing them all, as there are so many good ones to list (Emmen, Hagenbeck, Hannover, Rotterdam are a few that all come to mind)
For Asian Elephants in germany Hannover and Cologne-both zoos currently have 4 pregnant females . Three cows at Hannover are due in November/December, the last in April.
