North American Asian and African Elephant Populations: Discussion and Speculation

You can rule out Australia. They don’t have the cows in the meantime, and probably won’t have any surplus cows for a very long time due to their newly established population.

Europe meanwhile does have surplus females and seemingly have had plans to offload many individuals to the US in recent years (most of which have been cancelled due to covid). But there’s really no reason why new plans can’t be made.

From what I’ve heard White Oak have an interest in maintains their females as a large herd. They don’t really have many candidates at the moment too (especially if they wish to continue breeding) but may going forward.

ALS seems the strongest option. With a herd now exceeding 20, they have plenty of young females that are reaching breeding age and are related to their current bull. ALS is also quite close to Oregon, so shouldn’t be hard transport wise.

 

Portland, Oregon, and Cambridge, Ontario, are absolutely not close to each other at all, lol. They’re clear across the continent from each other, over 4000km apart! Or, in more Australian terms, going from Perth to Brisbane.

The closest American facilities with breeding groups of asians to ALS are Rosamond Gifford, Columbus, Cinci, and Smithsonian.

 

Perth to Brisbane ain’t that far

 

huh. Must be thinking of a different zoo then.

 

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With the news of the Utah girls going to a new AZA facility there’s definitely some options. I know Jacksonville was interested in having additional breeding females and the expansion to the elephant exhibit is in there master plan. Ali has father offspring through AI but never naturally and appears to be a non-behavioral breeder. Oakland is another option but while I was there the head keepers are strongly against elephant captivity and Osh is also behavioral non-breeder. I was with the keepers one day he was out with Donna and they stated that Osh hasn’t figured out what he is supposed to do. I see the girls probably going to Fresno, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Maryland and Roger William Park Zoo. Yes all except one will have to be through AI.

 

The link is not working?

 

A few of those would be rather odd places to move the two females too. For example, Roger Williams, the one of those I'm most familiar with, while they have a great elephant exhibit for their three girls, do not have the space to incorporate two additional cows, nor is it necessarily ideal to try and mix adult cows who weren't raised together.

 

With Atlanta, what are the cows there like?

 

I know its a long shot but those facilities have had interest in continuing there elephant programs and are AZA

 

there are two and a non-breeding bull. I have not been to zoo Atlanta in years so I wouldn’t know. The cows have been together for a long time.

as for the Utah elephants. Christie may be too old to breed again and her daughter was born in 2008.

 

Christie is only 36, she’s absolutely not too old to be breeding. The limiting factor for her will be if her uterine condition and general reproductive tract health is still good enough to carry a pregnancy.

 

I hope you are right. She has only one cow calf and is not related to any other elephant in USA. So she’s quite genetically valuable.

 

It has been announced earlier on social media today that Donna is moving to the elephant sanctuary in June.

 

Oakland zoo will not be breeding elephants. I found other articles stating they want to bring in young males to form a bachelor herd with Osh.

“We have no plan to breed elephants at this point and into the future,” he said. Dehejia said the zoo had considered participating in an AZA breeding program with the Osh, the zoo’s lone male elephant, but that the plan never came to fruition.

Oakland Zoo prepares to say goodbye to another elephant

 

My best guesses for a bachelor herd at the moment are Titan at Sedgwick, Samson at Maryland, and Kedar at Indianapolis

 

I do not think they ever attempted to breed. But with the surplus of bull calves it would be a good idea to be the holding facility for those.

 

I did an elephant encounter at Zoo Tampa and can confirme that there females aren’t currently pregnant but are hoping for a calf in 2025. Mbali is currently cycling and has been breeding with Sdudla. Matjeka has not been currently tested to see if she is cycling or in early stages of pregnancy but Sdudla has recently been showing interest in her has well.

Now I really wonder who the last 2 unconfirmed pregnancies are.

 

Three year old Fitz at Louisville has been diagnosed with EEHV. Louisville already lost one African Elephant calf to EEHV, so hopefully they have better luck this time.

Louisville Zoo’s 3-Year-Old Elephant Diagnosed with Potentially Fatal EEHV Virus (Media Release)

 

What other calf did was lost to EEHV at Louisville? Scotty died from colic. I am just not remembering another calf perhaps.

 

Oh sorry I got mixed up there it was Scotty who I was thinking of.