North American African Elephant Population 2023

Fort Worth Zoo has Asian Elephants and not African Elephants, so this should go in the North America Asian Elephant population thread.

 

Sedgwick County Zoo

So apparently a month ago on February 14th, the Sedgwick County Zoo posted an update on their African Elephant herd and the zoo clearly states that they do NOT have any pregnancies in their herd yet.

 

Wonderful news to see Omaha's fifth and final cow pregnant (as was of course expected). Hopefully she'll also benefit from Jayei giving birth later this year too and can spend a few months gaining further maternal knowledge for her own birth next year.

Also good to see Ohama finally using African names to name their calves too. Mopani's a very nice name.

 

Disappointing to hear, but I was interested to see Sedgewick willing to AI females at other facilities using their own bull prior to doing the same with their females who still haven't conceived seven years on.

 

Lisa, a 46 year old African Elephant at the Oakland Zoo has died.

46-year-old Oakland Zoo elephant euthanized after battle with arthritis

 

Very sad news, but not surprising. Given all the recent posts they’ve been making on social media about her, it’s definitely felt like they’ve been slowly ramping up and preparing their zoo community for her inevitable passing.

 

Zoo Knoxville announces female elephant 'Jana' will be the first to move in the upcoming weeks to the Tennessee Elephant Sanctuary.
Elephant Crate Training | In 2022, Zoo Knoxville announced that African elephants Tonka, Jana, and Edie will be moving to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, as part of their... | By Zoo Knoxville | Facebook

 

Hogle Zoo to pause care of elephants, move Christie and Zuri to new locations

Zuri and Christie at the Hogle Zoo are moving to another AZA institution.

 

This is really exciting and unexpected news! It will be very interesting to see where the girls end up. Hopefully, they end up with a viable breeding bull and some other cows so that they will finally be able to breed naturally and be part of an actual herd.

 

This is finally good news from Hogle. Long overdue but better now then never.

 

Where could they go as far as a breeding group goes? Honestly I'd reckon they'd do well in North Carolina, Fresno or even Oakland.

 

Further posts about this move should be posted in this thread.
North American Asian and African Elephant Populations: Discussion and Speculation

 

Very interesting news, but not entirely upsetting by any means! Christie is extremely genetically valuable, and while its been a while, there's a reasonable chance she should still be viable as a breeder. And Zuri of course, is at a prime age to get pregnant with her first calf. Hopefully they get a move on sooner than later!

I'm quite curious where they might be headed. Call it a gut feeling, but I think it might be North Carolina (unfortunately).

I think it's safe to say Sedgewick, Omaha, Dallas, Tampa, Tucson and San Diego are all non-options. They all have fertile multi-cow herds already. Pittsburgh's ICC is a no-go, Zuri is Jacksons daughter. I highly doubt Fresno, both their cows are likely pregnant by now, and putting two unrelated mother/daughter units together is just asking for them to butt heads.

Technically Atlanta and Maryland both have newer exhibits with bulls and the space for more animals, but both Tuffy and M'sholo are nonbreeders, and Samson is young and unproven as of yet (albeit genetically valuable). It's a very left field move, but I wouldn't be 100% surprised to see them come up to Canada, either. Hogle and Parc Safari have worked together on AI attempts in the recent-ish past, and Junnot is extremely genetically valuable, as an unrepresented founder. Granby of course has Tutume, who is entering his prime at 20 years old, and is also an unrepresented founder for the North American region. Both bulls are large enough to dominate and breed Christie, and both are familiar with dealing with older cows as well.

Edit: Technically Oakland is an option, and Osh *is* a founder for the region as well, but I've heard they're considering getting out of elephants once their remaining cow passes away. Plus Osh is older, unproven, and AFAIK hasn't actually physically shared space with the cows for a very long time, so they would be a very risky option to take, especially considering Christie and Zuri have no experience with bulls either.

 

I think you are right. It makes the most sense with the recent move of Artie.

 

Jana has been moved to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee

Jana has successfully made the move to her new home! | Jana, a 42-year-old female African elephant, has safely arrived at her new home in Hohenwald, Tennessee. She was the first of Zoo Knoxville’s herd to... | By Zoo Knoxville | Facebook

 

Granby is likely a no go. They have pledge to phase out and rehome the elephants once their older female passes.

I also think Parc Safari is low likelihood given the Jane Goodall Act going through government right now which would ban future elephant imports and breeding, among other things. I doubt they would take the steps to bring elephants up to Canada when the government will make it impossible to breed them. Parc Safari hasn't said what its future plans are for their elephants.

 

Euch, I thought that stupid bill was dead in the water, I wasn’t aware it was still going through

and that’s fair on Grandby as well. It heard conflicting info going back-and-forth about if their elephant program was continuing or not, but honestly haven’t been keeping super close tabs on it. I try to say somewhat aloof to things going on in Canada, since it’s usually just sad things that make me sad if I pay too much attention, lol.

 

Per Oakland Zoo’s Twitter, Donna will be moving to the Elephant Sanctuary in the coming months. As for Osh, plans are to have other elephants brought into the zoo.

https://twitter.com/oakzoo/status/1653809533335269377?s=46&t=Mob57CJ3T6LytRVz2WYLuA

 

That's actually surprising given the head keepers' stance on elephants in captivity - a welcome one to be sure!

 

My best guess would be to start a bachelor herd with Osh and two or three younger bulls