On July 2o, 2010 Rotterdam had their 14th elephant born (Timber X Bangka), 9 of which have been female which is a good percentage, given the male's that are normally produced. I wonder why, if a yearling male is a bull, a yearling female is not a heifer?
Monday, October 4, 2010
Rotterdam Zoo Elephants
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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4 comments:
Wade - given that a large number of captive elephant births are bulls, what is going to happen to all of these bulls as they mature?
In the wild they would be given the bum's rush from the herd and form bachelor groups for a while.
But is there any evidence of long term bachelor groups of males [either African or Asiatic]?
In captivity, have you ever heard of any long term bachelor groups that have remained stable well into maturity?
Steve,
Good point, and I don't know of any, of any great size. I have often thought that the next "knock" on zoo's now that they are fairly successful in breeding elephants, is going to be the issue of males. I think that is what the elephant facility that is in the works in the Florida Everglades hopes to address, if it is completed. Might be a useful and honorable thing for the activists and "sanctuary sad sacks" to donate their money towards, instead of useless, feel good situations.
Wade
Well that ain't going to happen any time soon.
Anybody got any practical ideas for keeping male groups compatible for 40, 50, 60 years?
Castration?
The little one is named Faya.
Rob.
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