Elephants Elephants - Wildpro - Twycross Zoo

The goal should be to give cows experience of observing births so that they can
then be left as a social group for all births without shackling (Schulte 2000), a
process which has been successful in several zoos (e.g. Metro Washington
Park, Emmen, Copenhagen, Ramat Gan, Chester). There will continue to be
debate over management until we have better recorded information on the
birthing process. Therefore it is essential and MANDATORY (effectively a
MUST) that all collections breeding elephants have a birthing plan with
logical justifications for it and keep detailed records of each birth, from the
onset of labour to the birth of the calf 1.
The EAZA TAG have collected and are collecting video footage of births in
order to show what has been done before and the consequences as well as
collecting data for future analysis, a dvd is available from the EAZA TAG. A
review of these elephant births by the EAZA elephant TAG (Schwammer pers
comm.). indicates that it is preferable and more natural to leave cows
unshackled and with familiar females.
BIAZA strongly recommends that collections with pregnant females and
imminent births contact the TAG.
3.6.3 Development and care of young
Cows are extremely protective of their calves and may become dangerous.
Asian elephant calves have been observed to suckle from females other than
their mothers, but only when those cows had no calves of their own.
Allomothering in African elephants is shown in captive groups and follows a
similar pattern to that observed in the wild (Douglas-Hamilton and Douglas-
Hamilton 1975) (Moss 1988). This experience is probably of great importance
to nulliparous females (Schulte 2000), and more studies on social interactions
in a group post-partum are needed.
For milk supplements for handreared young, please see section 3.4.3 and note
that a plan of reintroducing of the calf to the dam and the herd as soon as
possible should be drawn up. Young elephants start eating solids at about 11
weeks of age but usually continue suckling for some years, often until the next
calf is born.
3.7 Population Management 2
3.7.1 Overview
As has been pointed out, captive breeding of elephants in zoos has not been
good, and the majority of births have taken place since 1980. None of the
captive populations are self-sustaining and it is interesting to examine the
reasons for this.
1 Additional sentences to state that records of births must be maintained.
2 This section has been updated.
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