Basically, where are the largest elephant herds in captivity kept for both Loxodonta africana and Elephas maximus? Not counting sanctuaries or reserves (even though most wouldn't). The largest I have seen so far for both are as follows: African elephant = Howletts Wild Animal Park (3.10) Asian elephant = Whipsnade Wild Animal Park (4.7 currently, will soon be 2.7)
Doesn't Ringling Brothers have 40 elephants in one facility? Even though I m quite sure they are not managed as a single herd.
And Cabarceno has 4.10 African Elephants and Pairi Daiza has currently 1.11 Asian elephants, but again not in a single herd. Cologne has a similar number, but I would suspect some Asian collections will beat this easily.
Shall we say just in Europe for the time being then? Since I reckon most Asian places will take the cake as well. Shall we also say that just in zoological institutions, rather than other collections e.g. circuses such as Ringling brothers, and also just single herds? Since for example Chester have/had the largest group of chimps in the UK at 20 (now 19 individuals) but Monkey World have 55 chimps in total, just not in one group.
Cologne are listed as having 3.9. Are these kept in one herd? If so that would make them the largest herd so far mentioned here.
@DDcorvus that's what I mean when I say herd, it can be either with males separate and occasionally mixed (e.g. Whipsnade, Howletts and Cologne) or all in together (Artis until recently and Chester are good examples) most of the time.
So so far the largest herds we have in the US and Europe are as follows: EUROPE African = Cabarceno (4.10) Asian = Cologne (3.9) USA African = San Diego WAP (7.6) Asian = St Louis (1.9)
The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka has a herd of close to 100 elephants. It is currently being extended into a zoo (i.e. with more species other than asian elephants). Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage - Wikipedia
Canada takes the cake for zoo's in North America (and quite possibly Europe as well) African Lion Safari in Ontario has a herd of 4.12 asian elephants, and it is very likely that number will grow in the next year or two.