San Diego Zoo Safari Park San Diego Wildlife Park news 2007-2009

Baby Elephant Healthy, Just Not Steady - Local News

A birth of a male African elephant !!

 

san diego WAP had a pretty large wild-captured herd to begin with from memory and with this birth and two more on the way, they must have a lot of elephants!

 

wasnt another calf delivered last september as well, plus another calf when the herd arrived from adrica. any wonder the african elephant SSP is looking alot more stable than the Asian Elephant SSP...

 

this male was the 3rd calf born to the wild caught herd of 6 or 7 i belive, 5 females, and a male were imported along with another zoo who also received some eles (like our rhino programs) the first calf was born a yr or 2 after arrival i think, the last a female in september 2006, and now this 2nd male calf this yr

going now to get more details

 

ok 1 male (Mabu) and 6 females were imported

1st calf born male Vus'musi born February 23, 2004
2nd calf born female Khosi born sept 11 2006
3rd calf male name unknown born other day lol

all adults arrived august 2003

to put in perspective, 8 adult africans, wild born, no human contact, on a plane from kruger national aprk to a zoo

not like our asian who were very young animals, with contact

these africans were estimated born all around 93/94 so making em all about 12- a huge task

 

the recent announcement to cull african elephants in south africa gained alot of publicity. i dont have a problem with decent zoos importing african elephants who otherwise would be culled...

 

I agree. San Diego have proven that it can be done successfullly, if the animals can be exhibited in the right sized enclosure. I would hate to see smaller zoos try to do this if they were going to place the elephants in small city zoos, but i guess a small exhibit is better than getting shot. If the quality of life is good for the animals at the zoos i don't have a problem with taking then from the wild. It would cost a fortune but.

 

elephantine costs

it would cost alot of money to run this sort of a rescue mission, but probably still cheaper than trying to import 8 asian elephants
during the whole import saga i ran through a worst case scenario, whereby taronga was left with an empty elephant exhibit. there were suggestions it could of been used for old circus elephants, but if this didnt work the whole precinct could of been re-themed to be an african forest edge type habitat.
there could of been pygmy hippos instead of tapirs, bongo instead of chital, serval instead of fishing cats, mandrill, colobus and guenon instead of gibbons and langurs, etc.
however, the thai architecture and planting scheme would have been a little too, er 'multicultural'

 

They bred some African calfs there some years ago and at least two of them were exported to a zoo in China.

 

which chinese zoo mark?

 

I can not remember off hand Pat but i know i have it on file some where in the house

 

i've never been to the states, but from what i've read, the african enclosure at the WAP is quite small when considering the large number of elephants. having so much acreage, surely the zoo could expand the enclosure, esp. with more young to come? look at oakland, the number of elephants there (4?) and i think the enclosure is double the WAP's.

 

I don`t know which chinese zoo it was but they were sent to China around 1985, a bull and a female. I have no idea if they are still alive; they may have died in the meantime. Around 1982-1983, 5 african elephants were born in San Diego WAP, 3 of them survived; 2 were sent to China (a shame if you ask me...) and one, Moja, was sold to a circus trainer (no much better then China). After the trainer was killed by female elephant Tyke (this incident is famous, there is horrile footage how Tyke run amok), Moja ended up in the Pittsburgh where she gave birth to a daugther in 1999. Now she is pregnant again. In 2002, she killed an elephant handler there, after injuring one a few years earlier. Nevertheless they STILL care for her in direct contact... I have seen pictures of that - until the next keeper dies?

 

Wildfires

San Diego Wild Animal Park has reopened following the recent wildfires in California. 600 acres of the zoo's land was burned, about a third of the total land they own. Most of it was in the buffer zones bordering the park which are not used for animal exhibits, but some animals did have to be relocated to move them away from the flames. Amazingly only 2 animals perished, a clapper rail and a kiang (sad), and 2 buildings were lost, a storage facility and a breeding centre for California condors. I think they had an incredibly lucky escape.

 

don't worry folks i'm fine just a little singed

 

I think the elephant areas was 5 acres in area when it was built years ago, unless they have expanded it since.

 

i beleive they are planning to expand, as the asian at sdwap are moving to sdz, when the elephant odessy exhibit opens. it is a really interesting concept. it is going to be the calafornian state, but 20 000 years ago, with tar pits, and bone digs etc. there will be asian elephants, in mixed species with brazillian tapir, cabybara, rhea etc. alongside jaguar, puma and californian condor. it's meant to be about the changing times, and the current rate of extinction, sounds great, and very large.

back to the wap, this means the 3 acre or so asian facilities will be freed up for africans (located side by side)

the largest ele facilities are the disney animal kingdon at 9 acres, followed closely by the soon to be opened Wantani Plains exhibit at NC ZOO. they have more than doubled tehre ele collection in the past 3 months, with 4 arrival, bring them to 7 eles, to bve put in a 8 or so acre exhibit, nxt door to the 30 axcre savannah, with 10 rhino, and 100 antelope. nc zoo is a little love of mine that i follow. i love it!

 

thats still side by side. modifications could be made either to join the to, or use them as 2 separate habitats