I was just reading a blog about the SDWAP elephants and in the comments section, someone wrote (this is copy and pasted from the comment) "The last time I was at the park (June 4th) one of the volunteers said that two of the females we’re pregnant. I was wondering if there was any information about who and when they are due" We all know Ndula's pregnant, but I don't think any of us knew that there was another pregnancy! Who could it be, my guess it Lungile or Swazi but it could always be Samba or Umoya We can't get to excited though, we don't know if this info is true or not but I'll keep everyone posted if I hear more
Update! I just got back from reading replies to the comments and the moderator responded with this quote "Yes, we are expecting not ONE, not TWO, but THREE African elephant births at the Wild Animal Park next year! It will be a very exciting year for the herd!" Three new calves! Thats amazing! The herd will have 14 elephants plus by then i'm, sure Umgani will be pregnant again
Are there any spare breeding age bulls in the US?, maybe zoos with some of the larger herds and more space could keep more than one bull
I think a problem with the current African population is that too many calves are related to Jackson (Pittsburgh) and the bull at SDWAP. There are other bulls available but without AI breeding won't occur.
I think they should try inseminating the females with various males along with natural breeding with Mabu. The thing that makes Mabulahne so valuable is that he was wild born, he has no other relatives in the United States except his children and he is extremely young, only 18
Yes but once they start dispersing the calves nationwide the SSP is going to have to be cautious. They are the most genetically valuable African elephants on the continent - and they are going to want to breed them with everyone possible, which isn't possible because this will lead to genetic degradation. The influx of new genes is great, but they are going to have to restrain themselves from over-representing such a valuable group of elephants - which will put us in a similar situation with a large number of elephants being related to Jackson.
And those SDWAP calves account for 20% of the surviving elephant calves born since 1999. When compared to the other elephant calves in the country, the SDWAP calves are not that valuable at all. Many of those AI calves are actually the most valuable F1 African Elephants in the SSP.
I am confused as to why Knoxville's bull hasn't bred with any females. He would be a good donor for artificial insemination at other zoos.
you guys are forgetting that Moose at SDWAP is unrelated to ALL the females in the herd except his mother Ndula. The problem though, is that he won't be able to breed for perhaps another decade or so.
but don't zoos use primary bloodlines? when moose becomes mature he will most likely be sent to another zoo, and mabu be the breeding bull still. At singapore NS chawang and Sangwira both are A.I donors even though Sang wira is chawang's son. Though I'm not certain of this , SDWAP could do it differently.
We don't know if Moose is related to any of them because he was conceived in the wild to another bull but he was born at SDWAP. For all we know, many... if not all of the females at SDWAP could be Ndula's sister, aunt or cousin.
@zoogoer: The unknown male that sired Moose will be considered an unrelated founder. All wild caught animals are considered unrelated to each other (unless proven otherwise)...this is a given variable that creates the foundation for all captive breeding programs. Without it, genetic management of the captive population would be an even bigger headache. @dragon(ele)nerd: it would rather be irresponsible for San Diego if they kept Mabhu as the breeding bull for a long time. It would decrease the genetic diversity of the entire captive population and especially make all of SDWAP's elephants over-represented, by allowing Mabhu to breed over and over with the same females, rather than sending him out to futher 'sow his seed'.
Update! After reading another comment related to the pregnancies, the moderator responded with this quote "The Wild Animal Park’s African elephants Ndlulamitsi, Swazi, and Umoya are expecting babies in 2010" Ndlulamitsi was already confirmed, Umoya was a suspected possibility but Swazi was a huge shocker to me as she has taken quite awhile to become pregnant Once the moderater posts the approximate due dates, I'll return here with awnsers
well noted, three pregnancies! wow, that is awesome! I love the name Ndlulamitsi and that is belongs to a zoo elephant! The great Ndlulamithi was one of the original magnificent seven of kruger national park.
one of the blogs says mabu is being trained to give semen samples to send to other facilities heres a link San Diego Zoo Conservation Research i'm the one that originally asked them about the pregnancies and find cool to see how much interest that has sparked on both the zoo's site and here
