Hopefully this isn't spam, but I was looking at pictures of Jumbo and wondering where the largest elephant is in the UK? I love elephants but I don't think I've ever seen a really big adult bull. Elephant.se has been down for a while, so I though I'd best ask here. I assume it is a bull, and from what I remember both Chester's and Whipsnade's bulls are fairly young, and Asian. Would it be Tembo at Colchester or Kruger at Port Lympne.
Combine that with having a big herd and I'm sold on Howletts if I can convince some friends to go on holiday in Kent again. Thanks for the help.
Jingo wasn't, I'm sure of that. Based upon age, species, and on having seen both Jums and Kruger, I think that the former is the biggest elephant in the UK. And as Jumbo was only 19 when he left London, and Jums is about 33(?), the latter must surely be the biggest elephant to ever live in a UK zoo.
Elephants, like all animals vary from individual to individual. Some bulls attain truly titanic sizes like Ahmed and Satao but most don't. Jumbo definitely got much taller than Jums, even allowing for a bit of Barnum's "showmanship", and only 200 kg lighter. This is a picture of him in London. A little blurry but the people allow for a good sense of scale. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...d_to_walk_through_the_box_outside_his_den.png
Maybe you want to consider Netherlands as well and have a look at Calimero. Their herd at Beekse Bergen is not that big (1.3 currently), but they will receive more females from Germany soon. They share their enclosure with baboons which gives nice interaction between the two species.
Jums is certainly the largest (and tallest) elephant in the UK at the moment. He is starting to look the part, but is not the most impressive elephant to have lived in the UK in recent times (in my opinion anyway). The old Chester bull Chang (I believe now at Le Pal in France), was a very heavy elephant and might well be heavier than Jums, but nothing like as tall. He's no longer in the country anyhow, but worthy of note as he sired so many calves at Chester and is huge! My favourite bull elephant ever to have lived in the UK was the Asian bull 'Assam' who lived at Port Lympne in Kent. A magnificent tusker, he died in his prime in the 90's whilst being sedated for some footwork. He was certainly the largest mammal held in a UK zoo when he died.
At the moment Jums weighs an impressive 6.1 tonnes which may be the same as Chang, Upali at dublin zoo also weighs 6 tonnes, asian elephants though are able to obtain more weight with ought having to be incredibly tall, where as thee africans seem to use this contribution of weight to expand their surface area and become taller. I have never seen a picture of Assam just some pictures of Lucha from Lympne
