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Auckland Zoo elephant herd now in the works

Discussion in 'New Zealand' started by Chlidonias, 4 Mar 2009.

  1. zooboy28

    zooboy28 Well-Known Member

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    Two friends for lonely Auckland elephant :confused:

    Two friends for lonely Auckland elephant | Stuff.co.nz

    I suppose when they say 'baby' they mean 'young adults'.
    I can see that the quicker they bring in new elephants the better, but I really hope that they still plan on the herd approach, as this would be much better long-term, more likely to be succesful, and probably not significantly more expensive (as the plan to import 2 will still require enlargement of existing enclosure, a new enclosure for the bull, and importation).
     
  2. Nisha

    Nisha Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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  3. Kifaru Bwana

    Kifaru Bwana Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Animal welfarists are a vindictive black sheep(s) equal to the Taliban in fundamentalist views they wish to bestow on the unsuspecting rest of us. Yuck! :rolleyes:
     
  4. jay

    jay Well-Known Member 20+ year member

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    Do you include Cynthia Moss in that assessment. While I don't think keeping elephants in captivity is wrong in itself, I do have a lot of respect for Ms Moss and don't think she fits the description you stated. :)
     
  5. Kifaru Bwana

    Kifaru Bwana Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Nope, I do not.

    Having said that there is (alas) a definite grey area with Dr. Moss there. It is no big deal being opinionated, however in science you should get your facts right and leave personally held views just be that. Hence, I do not condone some of her views on elephants in captivity. Also, she biting the hand that feeds her ....
     
  6. zooboy28

    zooboy28 Well-Known Member

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    Well, it looks like the activists failed! :D

    Auckland Zoo - 2011 MEDIA RELEASE - Council says yes to elephant companions for Burma

     
  7. Jabiru96

    Jabiru96 Well-Known Member

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    I wonder where these two young females would come from? These two animals will become another great addition to the Australasian breeding program, and hopefully a bull can be acquired to breed from them, but most importantly, Burma will get company from a fellow elephant for at least a few years.

    Or maybe Auckland doesn't need to source a male from overseas? Maybe an Aussie born male will join them in a few years time to become the lead breeding bull in New Zealand? Who knows, but all the best to Auckland.
     
  8. Steve Robinson

    Steve Robinson Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    So elephants are only going to be managed at species level then?

    That would be good news for an Aussie zoo!
     
  9. zooboy28

    zooboy28 Well-Known Member

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    They are coming from a refuge in Sri Lanka.

    As for the bull, that would be a long-term plan, but would probably happen eventually. The current plan does not require any changes to the exhibit, just minor modification to the indoor housing. A bull will require another exhibit to be built, while further females would need extensions to the exhibit.
     
  10. jay

    jay Well-Known Member 20+ year member

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    I understand what you are saying.
    I hope that the two new females will breed and provide the starting piont for a new herd. Certainly there are a couple of young males here who could be a future NZ stud bull
     
  11. Jabiru96

    Jabiru96 Well-Known Member

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    Why is that? (Every?) elephant in Australia is of the mainland sub-species, so wouldn't it be hybridising two different sub-species. And aren't there enough Thai logging elephants left for Auckland to import......
     
  12. Yassa

    Yassa Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Are they sure that the import will go through?! There have been so, so many tries to import elephants from both African and Asia in the last years, from countries who have much less strict quarantine laws then NZ, and at least half of these efforts - if not more - failed. And those that go through take at least twice as much time then planned. I don`t think it`s the best for Burma to keep her all alone for ANOTHER year, let alone (much) more.

    I neither agree that they plan to bring in 2 young elephants without changes in the enclosure and without having built a bull facility. Everyone who knows a little bit about zoos knows what will likely happen in such a case - the bull facility will be delayed, more delayed, and one or two decades later the 2 formerly young females will be too old to breed. Or they will resume to AI, which may be in the best interest of zoos who want to breed elephants, but not in the interest of the elephants themselves....

    This is bad news, exept for those who are happy with zoo aka "collections" exhibiting elephants like museum artefacts.
     
  13. Jabiru96

    Jabiru96 Well-Known Member

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    But some zoos need to do AI as their bulls do not know how to mate properly. Take for instance the bull at Melbourne Zoo, Bong Su, who does not know how to mount the females as he wasn't kept with more than one female (who was too old to breed) for many years. All of his 3 offspring were conceived by AI, and are very genetically valuable as both parents are wild caught.
     
  14. dragon(ele)nerd

    dragon(ele)nerd Well-Known Member

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    How does the sub-species thing work? How actually different are the Mainland to the Sri Lankan subspecies? Is is the equvilent of an American American having a child with an Caucasian?
     
  15. zooboy28

    zooboy28 Well-Known Member

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    No. The baby comes out grey.
     
  16. dragon(ele)nerd

    dragon(ele)nerd Well-Known Member

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    yes but AI results in a surplus of male elephants, ( probably because the insemination occurs right when the female is ovulating giving the chance for male sperm to fertilize the egg first) To my knowledge, Mali at Melbourne zoo and Daizy at Albequerque zoo in the USA are the only female Asian Elephant calves produced by AI.
     
  17. dragon(ele)nerd

    dragon(ele)nerd Well-Known Member

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    I meant by the Genetic difference of the parents.
     
  18. Jarkari

    Jarkari Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Sri lanka would be the best option over the Indonesian sub species. Pinnewala breeds loads of elephants. It's a huge tourist attraction and is run by the government so obtaining captive bred elephants and proving they are captive bred will be easy compared to the Thai issues. While I was there with an elephant vet there was talk of them needing to construct another property ( a reserve style area, to allow them to keep breeding but to have somewhere to go. Wild orphans are generally taken to one of the elephant transit homes for reintroduction to the wild.

    Some Sri lankan elephants have more pink on them then mainland elephants but being so close to India, the differences aren't as obvious as with the Indonesian sub species. So maybe it's close enough is good enough.
     
  19. zooboy28

    zooboy28 Well-Known Member

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    The Debate Continues...

    Or rather, the critics winge and the zoo responds:

    Zoo staunch on elephant ambitions - national | Stuff.co.nz

     
  20. driftaguy

    driftaguy Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Monday night's My House My Castle episode has something to do with Auckland Zoo getting elephants. TV2 at 8pm on Monday the 13th of June