Elephant baby media kit - Oregon Zoo

Conservation in north america
Species Survival Plan
and Taxon Advisory Group
The Elephant Species Survival Plan (SSP) was established
in 1985 as a cooperative program to manage the elephant
population in North American zoos. Administered
by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the elephant
SSP’s goal is to maintain a healthy, sustainable elephant
population that is both genetically and demographically
stable by managing breeding protocols among member
zoos.
The Oregon Zoo’s director of elephant habitats, Mike
Keele, was an SSP founding member and served as
the species coordinator for the elephant SSP through
2000when it was reorganized to become a Species
Survival Plan and Taxon Advisory Group (TAG/SSP). He
served as chair of that group until 2010. The Elephant
TAG/SSP manages the North American elephant population
by recommending breeding and transfers. Additionally,
the Elephant TAG/SSP oversees population
management, reviews research and education proposals,
sets conservation priorities, and develops husbandry
manuals, which set standards based on current scientific
knowledge in the areas of diet, housing, enrichment and
care of elephants in zoos.
In addition to the SSP coordinator, two “studbook keepers”
maintain the vital records of the entire North American
population of both species (African and Asian),
including births, deaths, transfers and lineages. Keele
authored the original studbook for Asian elephants and
continues to maintain it with new information.
Using the studbook, the management group creates a
master plan that outlines the goals for the entire North
American populations of both African and Asian elephants.
It designs a “family tree” for each elephant in
order to plan breeding for maximum genetic diversity. In
addition to the recommendations about which elephants
are most important to breed, master plans include recommendations
to avoid breeding elephants that already
have many offspring and siblings in the populations.
To learn more, visit elephanttag.org.
Breeding at the Oregon Zoo
The Oregon Zoo has one of the most successful breeding
programs for captive elephants in the world. Twentyseven
Asian elephants have been born here over the
past five decades, which amounts to 17 percent of all
elephants born in North America during that period.
When Packy was born at the Oregon Zoo in 1962, he
was the first elephant to be born in the Western Hemisphere
in 44 years. The Oregon Zoo was the first zoo
to achieve second-generation breeding by producing
elephant calves from elephants born in Portland.
The zoo has pioneered Asian elephant breeding, with
important discoveries such as the length of the elephant
gestation period and how to monitor the estrous cycle
of female elephants to know when they are capable of
breeding.
The Oregon Zoo’s elephant facility is one of the major
reasons its breeding program has been so successful.
The zoo can house adult bull elephants, allowing for
normal behavior during musth, when they can be extremely
aggressive. At the same time, the facility is also
large enough to house normal social groups of female
elephants, creating a healthy breeding population.
The zoo is currently monitoring Rose-Tu, due to give
birth in late November or December 2012. Rose-Tu was
impregnated by Tusko, who arrived at the Oregon Zoo
in 2005 on breeding loan from a California elephant
facility. The zoo acquired Tusko to restart its breeding
program because its other two bulls, Rama and Packy,
are overrepresented in the gene pool and related to
Rose-Tu, making them poor candidates for breeding.
Samudra, born on Aug. 23, 2008, was the last elephant
born at the Oregon Zoo.
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