2000-11-30 - Berlin, Germany.
The success rate of captive elephant breeding programs worldwide is poor. Along with undiagnosed reproductive disorders in females and fatal diseases such as the newly discovered herpesvirus infection, male infertility now is considered a major contributing factor in the failure to maintain self-sustaining captive populations.
2000-11-03 - Seattle, United States. Woodland Park Zoo- PRESS RELEASE
The mother, 21-year-old Asian elephant Chai, gave birth today on November 3, to a female calf. The newborn elephant weighs 235 pounds. In September 1998, the zoo sent Chai on a breeding loan to Dickerson Park Zoo in Missouri. Her intended mate, Onyx, a 36-year-old Asian bull (male elephant), sired the calf.
2000-10-31 - Seattle, United States. Nina Pellegrini, The Seattle Times
Human tuberculosis, one of the leading infectious diseases in the world, has emerged as a threat to North America's aging Asian elephants, a species that already is inching toward extinction because of its increasing proximity to humans. Researchers think the animals - most of them born in the wild - were exposed in their homelands or while in close contact with infected handlers in zoos and circuses in North America.
2000-10-11 - Providence, United States. Schulte BA, Feldman E, Lambert R, Oliver R, Hess DL. Dept Biology, Providence College, Providence
The captive elephant population in North America is in reproductive decline and, without importation from the wild, may cease to be viable within the next several decades. The estrous cycle of three captive, reproductive-age African elephants was monitored for 3 years by measuring serum progesterone concentrations. Each elephant experienced one or more episodes of extended low progesterone (>12 weeks), analogous to supposed terminal cessation of estrous cyclicity or 'flatlining' that has been de...
2000-09-25 - SEATTLE, United States. Woodland Park Zoo- PRESS RELEASE
The Puget Sound Blood Center joined Woodland Park Zoo today to draw the final of 15 units of blood from the zoos pregnant Asian elephant, 21-year-old Chai. The first-time expectant mother is due to give birth late October. The milestone event will mark the first-ever elephant birth for Woodland Park in its 100-year history and also the first in all of Washington state.
2000-09-07 - Srinagar, India.
Indian geologists say they have unearthed the 50,000-year-old fossil of an elephant in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The fossil was discovered in a field of saffron at Gallander, east of Srinagar, the state's summer capital, by geology students who immediately called in experts.
2000-07-17 - Indianapolis, United States. CARL H. LAVIN
The elephant baby Amali made elephant history with her birth on March 6: she is the first African elephant conceived using artificial insemination. But on a recent afternoon, the 400-pound was grabbing a visitor's shirt with her trunk and chewing on the seam. ''She's a toddler,'' Lesley Mackie, an elephant keeper at the Indianapolis Zoo said. ''Everything goes in the mouth.''
2000-07-14 - Guangxi, China.
Chinese archaeologists have discovered well-preserved fossils of the Asian elephant dating back about 50,000 years to 100,000 years in a mountain cave in Pubei County of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The archeologists believe that the fossils were those of Asian elephants that lived in the late period the Pleistocene.
2000-03-29 - Cairo, Egypt. Frank Gardner
Egyptian police have seized a record haul of ivory with a street value of over $200,000. On Wednesday, Egypt's environment ministry announced that 78 pieces of elephant tusks has been seized from a warehouse in the town of Aswan.
2000-02-19 - WASHINGTON, United States.
A baffling disease that causes elephants to lose control of their trunks, making it hard for them to eat and communicate, is probably caused by a toxic plant. Kurt Hostettmann of Lausanne University in Switzerland said his group -- which usually searches for natural sources of new drugs -- believes a poisonous plant could be responsible and he has narrowed the list of potential culprits down to two or three.
2000-02-06 - Tampa, United States. DAVID PEDREIRA, St. Petersburg Times
Lance Ramos knew something was wrong when Kenya wouldn't eat the usual Friday dinner -- a batch of grain mixed with vitamins. An hour later, his concern turned to horror as the seemingly healthy elephant fell over, struggled to get up, and toppled again. Within minutes, the 21/2-ton elephant was dead.
