2003-12-21 - Honolulu, United States. Mary Vorsino
Steve Hirano, 57, died Friday evening at his Hawaii Kai home, less than two months after learning that he had pancreatic cancer. Steve Hirano made international news in 1994 when the rogue elephant tyke from a Blaisdell Center circus, for whom he was serving as publicist, charged and attacked him. The video of Tyke the elephant tossing Hirano out of the way as he tried to hold the animal behind a fenced gate is hard to forget.
2003-12-20 - Nairobi, Kenya. The East African Standard
More than 50 people from Kinna Division in Isiolo District have been detained after suspected poachers killed five elephants. The tusks of the slaughtered animals, which were apparently shot with poisoned arrows, were all missing. Kinna, an agricultural area, borders Kora and Bisanadi game reserves and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS)-managed Meru National Park.
2003-12-16 - Bangkok, Thailand.
Thai researchers will try to artificially inseminate a group of Asian elephants next month in a bid to boost numbers, a scientist working on the project said Tuesday. They will use samples stored at an experimental elephant sperm bank and are monitoring the beasts to work out the right time for conception in the northern towns of Lampang and Chiang Mai, said Mungkorn Damyang of Kasetsart University.
2003-12-05 - Attappady, India. The Hindu
A wild elephant was electrocuted at Thekkamukkiyur in Sholayur panchayat of Attappady today after it came into contact with an electric fencing put up by a farmer. Reports from Attappady said the cow elephant may have died due to the high voltage of current passed through the electric fencing directly from the main line.
2003-12-05 - Vienna, Virginia, United States. Feld Entertainment, Inc.
The new calf is the offspring of Ringling Bros.' bred elephants, expanding the largest gene pool outside of Asia. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® unveils white paper on the state of the Asian elephant in the 21st century. Vienna, VA-On December 5, 2003 at 9:25 a.m., Riccardo, a 232-pound male, Asian elephant, joined the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation (CEC) family. This newborn's arrival is historic, as he is the first offspring from two elephants born in...
2003-12-00 - Berlin, Germany. Martin F, Niemitz C., Freie Universität Berlin
In this article, the side preferences of feeding-related trunk movements of free-ranging Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) were investigated for the first time. It is hypothesized that a functional asymmetry of the trunk is necessary to perform skillful feeding movements more efficiently. This might be connected with a corresponding hemispheric specialization. Video recordings of 41 wild elephants provided frequencies and durations of the following trunk-movement categories: object contact, retr...
2003-10-27 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
An animal trainer was fatally struck by an elephant just a week after getting the job with a circus in Malaysia, a news report said today.
2003-10-14 - Emmen, Netherlands.
A Dutch zoo is struggling to cope after being sent the biggest elephant in Europe. Radza, a male elephant, has been loaned to Emmen Zoo to breed with its female elephants. But it is far bigger than the zookeepers expected and has been destroying the elephant cages. Razda, which is owned by Riga Zoo, Latvia, is more than 10ft high and weighs 7.2 tonnes.
2003-10-02 - Chiang Mai, Thailand. Sangduen Chailert
The Elephant Nature Park received two bulls in need of urgent medical treatment. Pookaew 18, had very serious foot problems, and Khum-min 46, a big abscess on his back.
2003-09-21 - Hua Hin, Thailand.
The Scottish Chivas Regal squad and Germany's Mercedes Benz met in the King's Cup in Hua Hin, Thailand, on Sunday. The Chivas side disposed of local team Nokia Thailand 8-2 in the semi-final, while the Germans beat Australia's Sandalford Winery. Money raised from the tournament is being used for a new elephant conservation centre in Lampang.
2003-09-12 - Pattaya, Thailand. Dr. Iain Corness
Martin Smith is Mein Host at the Old Speckled Hen Pub in Jomtien, and a man who has spent more than half his working life working with elephants. He was sent around the world by Aspinalls to study elephant management. This took him to the US, Singapore and Thailand to study handling methods and enclosures. The answer was total zero handling, with studies showing that male elephants would look upon the ‘keepers’ as rivals and would therefore eventually attack their adversary one day to gain s...
2003-09-11 - Galt, California, United States. Diana Lambert
Tammy, one of four Asian elephants living at the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary, has died. The 53-year-old Asian elephant was euthanized Saturday at the sanctuary after staff members were unable to get her to her feet after she fell. Publicity surrounded Tammy's arrival at PAWS in 1990 when she and another elephant, named Annie, were retired from a Milwaukee zoo. Both elephants were captured in India in 1954. PAWS president and co-founder Pat Derby said both elephants had injuries s...
2003-09-04 - PETALING JAYA, Malaysia. SUSAN TAM
They are smaller, tamer and more mild tempered compared with other Asian elephants and were discovered in Sabah. Following DNA tests they have now been confirmed as a new subspecies of Borneo “Pygmy Elephants.” Yesterday, WWF-Malaysia chairman Tengku Zainal Adlin congratulated the Sabah Wildlife Department on the discovery of the new variety. Tengku Zainal said in a statement that the DNA tests confirmed that the elephants were a distinct subspecies and had different characteristics from th...
2003-08-16 - Murchison, Texas, United States.
It is with great sadness that The Fund for Animals announces the passing of Tara, one of our beloved elephants at Black Beauty Ranch. Tara was 59 years old.
2003-07-24 - Kerala, India.
Elephants employed by the state of Kerala in southern India are to be granted full retirement benefits at the age of 65.
2003-07-20 - Chennai, India.
Dr. V. Krishnamurthy was a forest veterinary officer who served the Government of Tamil Nadu for over three decades, primarily concentrating on the health care of both domestic and wild elephants. Dr. Krishmurthy or Doc K, as he was fondly called, resurrected captive elephant health care and management to levels that have not been seen in Asia for the most of the last century.
2003-07-18 - Kolmarden, Sweden.
When the Swedish royal couple visited Thailand earlier this year, they were presented with two elephants as a gift from the king of Thailand. But the giant mammals don't understand Swedish, so two zookeepers are traveling to Thailand to learn Thai. "The elephants must be able to understand commands in the languages they've been raised with, so that we don't have to teach them Swedish," Magnus Nilsson, chief executive of Sweden's Kolmarden safari park, Norrköping, told The Associated Press on Fr...
2003-06-20 - Bogor, Indonesia. REUTERS/Supri
Inul, a Sumatran elephant born early this morning at Taman Safari park south of Jakarta, stands close to her mother Linda in her pen at the park June 20, 2003. Inul was named after the famous Indonesian singer and dancer know for her wild gyrations during her performances. The wild population of the Sumatran elephant is estimated to be around 600, down from more than 3,000 10 years ago.
2003-06-17 - Chicago, Illinois, United States.
This afternoon, Brookfield Zoo staff was saddened to lose Mame, a 32-year-old African elephant. Mame sustained severe injuries during an encounter with another elephant. Following the encounter, veterinary staff closely observed Mame and determined she had suffered disabling injuries to both her front legs. In the professional opinion of the zoo's veterinary staff, the prognosis for a successful recovery in this type of injury is very poor. Vets and animal collection staff were concerned Mame ...
2003-06-13 - Amboseli, Kenya. Cynthia Moss, Amboseli Elephant Research Project
One of the best known elephants in Amboseli, Erin of the EB family, died in May after a three week struggle for survival involving her family, the Amboseli Elephant Research Project (AERP) team, a BBC cameraman, and the staff of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).
2003-06-04 - Dak Lak, Vietnam. Nga Pham
Ama Kong is not an ordinary 88-year-old man. In a period of 40 years, he has captured and domesticated nearly 300 elephants - 298 to be precise. Descended from a Laotian tribal leader, who was believed to be the founder of the craft of elephant taming, Ama Kong reckons he has now captured and tamed more elephants than the Elephant King himself.
2003-05-28 - MALACCA, Malaysia. LEE YUK PENG
A young elephant, caught in a wild boar trap at a forest reserve in Rompin, Pahang, has been sent to the Malacca Zoo for treatment. The injured animal was spotted by villagers and rescued by wildlife officers last Thursday. It was brought here on Sunday where zoo officials were now nursing it back to health.
2003-05-25 - Los Angeles, United States. Lora LaMarca, Los Angeles Zoo
Ruby, a 42-year-old female African elephant at the Los Angeles Zoo, began her journey to her new home at the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee the evening of May 25.
2003-05-23 - Orlando, Florida, United States.
The Walt Disney World Resort's animal care team welcomed the first African elephant calf to be born at Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park Thursday night. The 296-pound calf was born at 10:05 p.m. to its 22-year-old mother, Moyo. The first-time mother was in labor on and off for four hours before giving birth to the calf, which was conceived through artificial insemination on Aug. 25, 2001.
2003-05-12 - Cheyenne, United States. Bruce Bailey, University of Nebraska State Museum
In June, we received a call from Mike Spaeth of Cheyenne County, reporting the discovery of a large fossil bone protruding from a stream bank. We arrived and uncovered not a dinosaur bone, but a complete lower jaw of the four-tusked elephant Amebelodon! This is the first skull, and only the second complete jaw (the first was collected in 1927) of Amebelodon known from Nebraska.
2003-04-10 - Washington, United States.
Aiming to stop what would be the first import of wild elephants to American Zoo Association (AZA) accredited zoos in the U.S. in more than a decade, a coalition of wildlife conservation and animal protection organizations today filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).
2003-03-29 - Boras, Sweden. Dan Koehl
Boras second african elephant birth took place 29 march, 02.29 hrs, a female calf weighing abt 80 kgs.
2003-03-18 - London, United Kingdom.
The endangered Asian elephant took a step closer to recovery March 14th when ecologist Dr. Raman Sukumar won the Whitley Gold Award of £50,000 at the annual Whitley Awards ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society in London. The Awards were presented by Princess Anne, patron of the Whitley-Laing Foundation. The Whitley Awards are among the most prestigious in wildlife conservation and popularly know as the "Green Oscars"
2003-03-17 - Cambridge, United Kingdom. Bethan J. Morgan and P. C. Lee. Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge
The stature of forest elephants Loxodonta africana cyclotis was determined at the Petit Loango Reserve over 14 months from January to December 1998 and May to June 1999 using three measures: shoulder height, hind footprint length and boli diameter. The shoulder height of 53 identified elephants was measured using photogrammetric methods. The minimum estimated shoulder height was 69 cm from a young calf, and the tallest animal was 216 cm. Hind footprint length and boli diameter data were collecte...
2003-02-20 - Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands. Press release
Wednesday morning the 19th of February 2003, Perry Haans (36), one of the elephant keepers at Safari Beekse Bergen, Hilvarenbeek, the Netherlands was injured badly by an elephant during his daily work. He was immediately taken to the nearby hospital where he died late that evening.
2003-02-10 - Ernakulam, Kerala, India.
Though the recent incidents in Kerala have put pachyderms in poor light, it is not an elephantine problem to make the animal fall in line, if the mahout knows its moods and showers affection, writes PRINCE FREDERICK.
2003-02-07 - KOLLAM, Kerala, India. Ignatius Pereira
The basic truth about elephants is that they can never be fully domesticated. The domesticated elephants always nurse a tendency to return to the wild and never return. Thus, they are wild though they appear tamed by obeying certain commands, according to Jacob V. Cheeran, a retired veterinary Professor,
2003-02-06 - Thiruvananthapuram, India.
Alarmed by the frequent instances of elephants running amok and goring mahouts to death, the Kerala government proposed to shortly come out with a set of rules on management and upkeep of captive elephants which will include penal provisions to check maltreatment of the animal. "This is for the first time in the country such rules are being framed, addressing a whole of range of issues relating to ownership, upkeep and welfare of elephants," E K Bharat Bhushan, secretary, forests ...
2003-02-04 - PRETORIA, South Africa.
Student elephant handler Wayne Stockigt told a court on Monday that he did not think it was cruel to hit an elephant, whether it be with a stick or a fist. He admitted to a televised video showing him beating an elephant with a broken broomstick, but said he had been taught to do so by expert Indonesian handlers to discipline elephants. Stockigt was testifying in the Pretoria Regional Court where he is standing trial for allegedly maltreating 30 Tuli elephants bro...
2003-01-13 - Guwahati, India.
MAHOUTS ride elephants decorated in traditional Indian garments during the Elephant Festival at Kaziranga National Park, about 220 km (125 miles) from Guwahati, the main city of the northeastern Indian state of Assam, Jan 11.
2003-01-09 - GUWAHATI, India. Barun Das Gupta, The Hindu
Assam will hold an Elephant Festival at Kaziranga on January 11 and 12. Over two hundred pachyderms have already arrived for the festival which will be attended by elephant experts from home and abroad.
