I was at pafos zoo last Tuesday. They are were heavily advertising locally they are expecting elephants any day. All images suggested Africans were on the agenda but the on sign on the rather small enclosure said Asian? Does anyone have any further information on the expected elephants.
A pair of female Asian Elephants are now due to arrive from Bangladesh shortly Elephants to arrive at Paphos zoo amid controversy - Cyprus Mail Cyprus Mail
Has anyone seen the enclosure, either in person or in photos? I know the article says one thousand square feet, but I am terrible at judging sizes by numbers like that. My intuition says it is probably too small. In this case I think I might agree with the animal activists, although there was one flawed argument they put forth. They said the elephants will not be able to release their body heat due to the high humidity of Cypress. Umm, hello, the elephants are coming from Bangladesh and are native to tropical Asia. Do you really think a Mediterranean island has higher humidity than the forests of Southeast Asia?
Five years later, but nevertheless: Here are some photos of the elephant enclosure in Pafos. 1000 square feet should match for the exhibit. There is also a small pool and a night house, but due to the climatic conditions of Cyprus, I guess the elephant can use the exhibit all the year long. Unfortunately one of the imported elephants has died in 2016. (Does anyone know the circumstances of death?) So there's only a ten-year-old female left.
The enclosure is really quite small and would really like the remaining elephant to be transferred to a zoo which can provide what the elephant needs. The zoo generally seems to be moving towards larger, nicer enclosures, but they have a similar situation with their giraffes. Very sadly the female giraffe passed away during childbirth along with the baby leaving only the massive male. They say they are however trying to find a new female to pair up the male with again and are hoping to make the enclosure larger.
I thought the Zoologicke Zahrada Praha imported some Sri Lankan elephant. Mainland Indian cum Sri Lanka subcontinent and Malayan elephant are treated as on ESU.
According to the latest thinking via the IUCN,Sri Lankan Elephants show no major genetic differences from mainland forms and shouldnt,most likely ,be accorded ssp status(so the ESU is correct).Sumatran is still a defined ssp however, and it is increasingly likely that Bornean is a true ssp too having been an isolate population for over 300,000 years. There would be a total of three ssp therefore,just as there is now...but with Sri Lankan overtaken and Bornean in its place. Its been proven,over the years,that it often wise to keep keep zoo populations as true to geographical origins as possible...but there really arent enough Sri Lankan Elephants to maintain that position in breeding terms.
Yes, Tim and correct ... hence I have been saying for years now that given their status separate programs even ex situ outside range would be worthwhile (obviously bringing in singletons or one sex only is totally unhelpful). Why the EAZA first bred with Borneans and Sumatrans - clearly phenotypically and morphologically different from mainland Asiatics - were allowed to interbreed is and was beyond me now and then. We have a real chance and opportunity here in Europe to accomplish the latter (Asiatics ++ separate small herds of Sumatran and Bornean elephant) with linkages up to Indonesian zoos and PKBSI. For now, as I understand it ..., EAZA is advocating phase out of Sumatrans and Borneans ....
