2008-12-30 - Los Angeles, United States. Brenda Scott Royce
My last post here, about the efforts by animal activists to halt construction of the Los Angeles Zoo's new elephant habitat, sparked more debate than anything I've previously written. As I've followed the firestorm of comments here and in other media outlets, I've been increasingly struck by what has become the rallying cry of Los Angeles's anti-zoo crowd: "Free Billy." It's cute and catchy, but utterly disingenuous.
2008-12-30 - Washington, United States. Brendan Borrell
In November, Brendan Borrell wrote about eBay's coming ban on the sale of ivory products and why it may not be such a great idea. The ban goes into effect Thursday. If, like me, you have always wanted to get a carved, elephant-ivory snuff box for that special someone, this holiday season may well be your last opportunity. The online auction site eBay announced on Oct. 20 that it would ban nearly all ivory sales on its auction sites effective Jan. 1. Last month, the company was embarrassed by the...
2008-12-24 - Twycross, United Kingdom.
have a vacancy for a Deputy Section Head to join our team of a Section Head and 3 Keepers caring for our Asian elephants - a group of 4 females with the youngest born here at Twycross. Another of the herd has been artificially inseminated and the calf is expected in summer 2009. We have a close contact approach to elephant management and train them to obey commands, enabling healthcare maintenance to be carried out. Our training regime is calm and consistent and the right keeper will demonstrate...
2008-12-21 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Can you imagine an orphanage that's a happy place? 60 Minutes couldn't, but then we found one. The kids don't arrive here smiling. Like orphans all over the world, they've been abandoned. They're hungry, sad and desperate. But after a few years, they're healthy, well-fed and happy. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, this orphanage is for elephants, located outside Nairobi, Kenya. They've been orphaned because their parents - their mothers mainly - have died, or more likely, been killed in the b...
2008-12-18 - Buttala, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan Tree Tops Jungle Lodge has been honoured with the Wild Asia Responsible Tourism Award 2008 at an award ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tree Tops is a basic mud- and tree-hut ecolodge entirely run and managed by staff recruited in a remote community where hunter-gathering is the traditional lifestyle combined with slash-burn farming. Situated in lowland Uva, 10 km from Buttala, the lodge is located in dryzone Weliara bush jungle in Southeastern Sri Lanka, a wilderness and slash and...
2008-12-18 - Victoria Falls, United States. Quentin Jones
Representatives of Wild Horizons have confirmed that earlier this week Gavin Best, an experienced and well respected handler of captive elephants used in their tourist elephant-back safari rides, was killed in a horrific and tragic incident by one of the elephants in his care. They have suspended their elephant tourism interactions whilst the incident is investigated. Wild Horizons recently established the ‘Wild Horizons Wildlife Trust’ to support their commercial elephant-back tours and e...
2008-12-18 - Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. Nora Schultz
Are elephants the bullies of the national parks? Should they be culled to give other creatures a look-in at the water hole? These are questions that were asked recently when figures showed that, as some elephant populations have increased due to reduced poaching and creation of artificial water holes, other herbivore species have declined. But when Marion Valeix, then at the National Centre for Scientific Research in Beauvoir-sur-Niort, France, set out to discover if the elephants of Hwange Nati...
2008-12-18 - Portland, United States. press release courtesy of the Oregon Zoo
Samudra, the Oregon Zoo's celebrated Asian elephant calf, got his first taste of snow -- literally. Keepers say the newest addition to the elephant herd romped in the snow for nearly a half hour playing with it, rolling in it and, yes, eating it. After closing for a day and canceling two nights of its popular ZooLights festival, the zoo has resumed regular operations and visitors were rewarded with a rare glimpse of animals enjoying a winter wonderland. "Our visitors rarely get to watch the anim...
2008-12-17 - Los Angeles, United States.
Today, Connie Morgan, President of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn., issued the following statement: "We are grateful to the Los Angeles Zoo Commission members for overwhelmingly voting today to support the completion of Billy's new home in the Pachyderm Forest after they had an opportunity to review all of the facts. Our forest will provide one of the largest and safest elephant habitats in the country, one that will be enjoyed for years to come by the schoolchildren and working families of Lo...
2008-12-16 - Polk City, United States. Eloisa Ruano Gonzalez
Ringling opened the Asian elephant conservation center in the Green Swamp in 1995 to retire and breed its circus performers. Officials say they've been successful breeding the endangered animal to ensure it survives, although animal-rights groups criticize the program. The center is experimenting with artificial insemination. Semen is collected from the male elephants and sent to various zoos and research centers across the United States to breed more elephants.
2008-12-16 - Dubare elephant camp, India. Jeevan Chinnappa
A five-day hunt to capture a wild elephant ended dramatically in the Maldare forest area in Kodagu on Tuesday with the capture of the animal by the Forest Department officials. This came as a relief to the people of Maldare. The operation to track and capture four elephants began with a puja here on December 10. The elephant caught on Tuesday is said to have killed five persons in and around Maldare recently. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) granted permission to capture four el...
2008-12-15 - Colorado Springs, United States. KKTV
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo welcomed a new friend Saturday. The zoo has announced that America’s mountain zoo is the new home to a 22-year-old African elephant. The new female elephant, Malaika, was welcomed on Saturday, December 13 after her owner chose for her elephant’s new home. The zoo has been searching for an additional elephant to join their other two elephants. The addition of Malaika is an important step in the zoo’s plans for redesign and expansion of its elephant exhibit area. Malaik...
2008-12-15 - , Nigeria.
Yankari has one of the most important populations of the elephant species in West Africa. The NCF added, “If the current poaching trend continues, Yankari may lose more than half of its population of elephants over the next six months. In the last few weeks alone there are reports of at least five elephants being killed and many more were killed earlier in the year. “Every day it is possible to find meat from elephants, roan, waterbuck and buffalo in the surrounding markets and this is all e...
2008-12-14 - Berlin, Germany. Peter Stolk and Rob Belterman, Netherlands
Yesterday Kewa, at Tierpark Berlin, delivered her fourth calf. Father of this 14th elephantcalf at Tierpark Berlin is Ankhor. And .... it's a female calf!
2008-12-12 - Rangoon, Myanmar.
Myanmar is at the centre of an illegal trade in elephants and ivory, with more than 250 live animals smuggled out of the country in the past decade, a report said Wednesday. Most of the elephants were destined for use in the tourist trekking industry in neighbouring Thailand, said the report by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. Smuggling of live elephants and ivory is in "blatant contravention" of national laws and of the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Specie...
2008-12-11 - New York, United States. CORNELIA DEAN
Living in a zoo drastically shortens the lives of Asian and African elephants, possibly because of the effects of stress and obesity, researchers are reporting. But their work provoked a sharp response from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Paul Boyle, the senior vice president for conservation and education at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, based in Silver Spring, Md., called the work “terribly flawed” and said it reflected an antizoo agenda. He said he could not recall “the ...
2008-12-10 - Patna, India.
Though the capture, sale and purchase of elephants are banned in India, according to the media reports, they were still sold in the Sonepur Cattle Fair, which concluded recently. This is possible because those engaged in the business have devised a unique method to circumvent the law. Temples in the southern states buy pachyderms at the annual Sonepur cattle fair. But what is more significant is that their trade has much to do with the rise of Bahujan Samaj Party in neighbouring UP as elephant i...
2008-12-10 - Pittsburgh, United States. Tacy Gray
The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium is roaring: You could be the 1,000,000th visitor! The Zoo’s current annual attendance is at 989 (Monday, December 8 2008) and counting. As a way to encourage everyone to visit the Zoo within the next couple of weeks and reach our goal, the 1,000,000th visitor to walk through the gates will receive a lifetime Zoo Membership, a $500 shopping spree at the Zoo’s gift shops, and a behind-the-scenes tour for ten people. The 1,000,000th visitor also will receive re...
2008-12-10 - Pennsylvania, United States.
Scientists have mapped out most of the genetic code of the wooly mammoth, marking the first time an extinct animal’s DNA has been decoded and raising the possibility that the creature could be cloned and return to life. Wooly mammoths, which roamed the planet 10,000 years ago, are relatives of the modern African Elephant, but were covered with thick hair, had larger tusks and smaller ears.
2008-12-09 - Los Angeles, United States. HECTOR TOBAR
Stand behind the curtain of bamboo just outside the paddock of the last, lone elephant at the Los Angeles Zoo and you'll hear the daylong drumbeat of running feet. Boys and girls yell "elefante!" and cry out "grandotote," which is Spanish for "huge." They ooh and ah, and ask questions of their parents in English, Korean, Tagalog and many languages more. Visiting the zoo is a Los Angeles rite of passage. I started coming in the late 1960s. For my Guatemalan immigrant parents, it was one more libe...
2008-12-09 - Perris, United States. James Montgomery
On Monday, People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals issued a press release condemning Britney Spears for featuring "cruelly trained lions and elephants" in her just-released "Circus" video and demanded that the pop star "stop using exotic animals in her videos and concerts once and for all."
2008-12-09 - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Ethiopia began inviting tourists to visit its dwindling elephant herd on Monday as part of efforts to boost income from tourism. The Babile wildlife sanctuary near Harar, 560 km (350 miles) east of Addis Ababa, is the first in Ethiopia to offer visits specifically aimed at seeing elephants, whose numbers have been ravaged by poaching and decades of neglect. There are around 300 in Babile, which is also home to a national symbol: the rare black-mane lion, depicted on Ethiopia's currency.
2008-12-09 - Arkansas, United States. Fred Petrucelli
Solomon is dead; long live Solomon. The 24-year-old pachyderm, the star of the Riddle Elephant Preserve near Quitman, passed peacefully and quietly in his sleep. The end for Solomon was difficult for his owner Scott Riddle who considered the huge elephant a member of the family. "Solomon died earlier this year from the affects of an infection and we could not do anything about it," he said. Large four-footed creatures elephants and horses are susceptible to the kind of infection that doomed Solo...
2008-12-08 - Guruvayoor, India.
In a moving spectacle, elephants of the Sree Krishna temple here paid floral tributes in memory of their legendary peer Guruvayoor Kesavan on the 32nd death anniversary of the majestic tusker, around whom are woven many a tale. In a solemn procession, 33 elephants marched through the temple town to the Sreevalsom compound close to the shrine, where they showered petals at the feet of Kesavan's statue.
2008-12-08 - New Delhi, India. Sankar Ray
India’s elephants, as much as tigers the country’s symbol, are dying in ever-greater numbers as industrialization, deforestation, the pressure of human settlement and shrinking food resources cut into their numbers. Although the world's concern has risen over the fate of India's tigers, the descending numbers of India's elephants have not caused alarm. They are not listed as endangered species. The Federal Ministry of Environment and Forests estimated the population of wild elephants at 26,4...
2008-12-07 - OI Pejeta, Kenya. Rachel Sutcliffe
Elephants of the OI Pejeta conservancy have been fitted with SIM cards on their necks which, when they reach the perimeter of local villages, automatically sends the rangers text messages. A virtual fence was implemented after an almost extinct breed, the Bull Elephant, raided crops during harvest, costing the locals as much as six months work and pay. This resulted in the Kenyan Wildlife Service reluctantly having to shoot five particularly persistent animals.
2008-12-07 - Los Angeles, United States.
The Los Angeles City Council last week halted construction on the new $42 million pachyderm exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo under fire from animal activists who say it's cruel to keep the large animals in zoos. They will be considering killing the project altogether. In these economic times, it makes sense. But the council has yet to decide what to do with L.A.'s sole elephant, Billy. What's your take? Should L.A. set Billy free and use his pen for something else?
2008-12-06 - Berhampur, India.
Three elephants, who fell into a well at Mahurapalli village in Ganjam district, were rescued on Saturday, official sources said here. The elephants had slipped into an open well located in a farm land last night when they came to the human habitation in search of food in Buguda forest range, B N Mohanty, Divisional Forest Officer (Ghumusar south) said. On being informed about the incident, forest personnel rushed to the spot this morning to pull out the pachyderms from the well.
2008-12-05 - Meghauli, Nepal.
The world may be lurching into recession, but in the jungles of southern Nepal, it’s business as usual for the eclectic bunch of jetsetters gathered for their annual festival of Pimm’s and elephant polo. An idea thought up in a bar nearly 30 years ago in the Swiss resort of St Moritz by Nepalese tourism pioneer AV Jim Edwards and polo enthusiast James Manclark, has blossomed into a series of tournaments held in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Nepal.
2008-12-05 - Sofia, Bulgaria.
The fossilized jawbone of an 18-million-year-old ancestor of the elephant has gone on display in a Bulgarian museum. The rare fossil at the Black Sea city of Varna's Natural Science Museum belongs to what experts call the 8.2-foot-tall (2.5-meter-tall) prodeinotherium bavaricum. Museum curator Stoyan Vergiev says the jawbone was found in 2005 at a construction site in northeastern Bulgaria, but never shown to the public until now.
2008-12-05 - Houston, United States. MARY FLOOD
A Houston man was among six people arrested on federal charges of smuggling black market ivory disguised to look like wood sculptures or musical instruments into the United States. A Houston federal magistrate on Friday ordered Mamadi Doumbouya, 39, be kept in custody and moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., to stand trial. He and his alleged co-conspirators, arrested in other states, are accused of bringing the forbidden elephant tusks from the Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Uganda into this country through JFK...
2008-12-05 - Tsavo, Kenya.
The census was supported by Kenya Wildlife Service, Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE), African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Saint Louis Zoo Field Conservation Program, Oregon Zoo Foundation, Phoenix Zoo, Zuercher Tierschutz, Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), Marwell Conservation and Grevy's Zebra Trust
2008-12-03 - Melbourn, Australia.
Melbourne Zoo's first elephant, Ranee, arrived at the Parkville campus to much fanfare in March 1883. Within a week the Asian elephant, fresh from Calcutta, was being saddled up in the summer heat for visitors to sit atop as she plodded her way along a meandering, purpose-built route
2008-12-03 - New Delhi, India.
At least 10 tigers and 57 elephants have been poached in India during last three years, the environment and forests ministry said Wednesday but said the government was doing its best to protect wildlife. While poachers in Rajasthan killed four tigers, two tigers each in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Kerala fell victims to wildlife criminals, according to a ministry report. Of the 57 jumbos killed, 22 were poached in Orissa alone. While eight elephants were killed each in Karnataka, Assam and Ke...
2008-12-02 - Negara, Malaysia.
IN line with its Corporate Social Respon-sibility (CSR) commitment, Carlsberg Malaysia continues its annual sponsorship of RM15,000 to the Malaysian Zoological Society (Zoo Negara), for the upkeep of the two Malaysian elephants. A group of 50 orphans from the Sinthamani Divine Life Ashram was also invited to join the fun-filled “Children’s Day at Zoo by Carlsberg Malaysia” and brought home with them many prizes and most importantly, big smiles on their faces.
2008-12-01 - London, United Kingdom. British Museum
This delightful giftbook celebrates the enduring fascination with this majestic animal through a wide variety of British Museum objects representing or inspired by elephants. The Bamileke in Cameroon donned spectacular trunked masks for theirelephant masquerade. Sixteenth-century European artists, when learning the art of drawing animals, practised images of elephants, whether or not they had seen one in real life. Ganesh, the elephant-headed Hindu god, is depicted in many wonderful sculptures.
2008-12-01 - Norwich, United Kingdom. SAM EMANUEL
CLIC Sargent, the children's cancer charity which is the focus of this year's Evening News Christmas campaign, and The Born Free Foundation, a wildlife charity working to prevent animal cruelty and suffering, were presented with cheques totaling £136,000 as the money raised at the Go Elephants! auction was given to the good causes. Children and animals in need will soon be benefitting to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds which was raised at the most talked about charity auction of the...
2008-12-01 - Washington, United States.
Biology, Medicine, and Surgery of Elephants serves as a comprehensive text on elephant medicine and surgery. Based on the expertise of 36 scientists and clinical veterinarians, this volume covers biology, husbandry, veterinary medicine and surgery of the elephant as known today. This is the only definitive text on these species and should be available at every institution that may be involved, even peripherally, with elephants
2008-12-01 - Los Angeles, United States.
The fate of a new elephant exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo will be debated Monday afternoon by a city council committee. At issue is a $42 million elephant exhibit, which critics say is too small and ill-suited for the elephants. The city council committee will provide new information about the financial consequences of scrapping construction on the project, which has already cost $12 million since being approved by the council in 2006.
2008-12-01 - Oklahoma City, United States. CARRIE COPPERNOLL
The capstone of the Asia exhibit will be the elephants. It will transform the Oklahoma City elephant program from a pair of sisters cramped onto a quarter acre of concrete to a family herd roaming up to 6 acres of lush grassland. Zoo design, especially for elephants, has changed dramatically since Torre began his career more than 30 years ago.
2008-12-01 - Los Angeles, United States. Zach Behrens
Brenda Scott Royce, director of publications for the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, sounded off this weekend at Huffington Post about all the elephant talk going on these days. Animal activists and Councilman Tony Cardenas want the exhibit currently under construction to halt work and have a search a large expansive elephant sanctuary. Royce, along with others, believe the exhibit is just fine. Their point of view has not gotten as much press, so here's some of it.
2008-12-01 - Dimapur, India.
Rogue elephants have killed another man in Wokha, this time in Yanmhon. One Belka Orang, an Adivasi, was killed on November 29, when elephants went on a spree destroying paddy fields, fishery ponds and plantations and even government and private houses in and around Yanmhon. A laborer, one Borli Orang was killed by an elephant on November 18 earlier. It is also reported that the Asian Oilfields Survey Service Limited is unable to carry out survey works for seismic activities in Yanmhon areas due...
2008-11-30 - Jamshedpur, India. KUMUD JENAMANI
For the first time, tuskers from Dalma have found the perfect shelter. Their new home has been built by the forest department on the same corridor that is frequently ravaged by them. For thousands of villagers in Ghatshila sub-division in East Singhbhum district, this harvest season has also been relatively incident-free as at least 12 elephants, including a calf, are huddled in Charchakka forest for the past fortnight. In a first-of-its-kind project in this part of the country, the Dhalbhum div...
2008-11-28 - Kolmarden, Sweden. Brigitte Larsson, Kolmarden
Kolmarden is looking for an experienced elephant keeper to join the staff in our pachyderm section, currently housing three female Asian elephants managed in free contact and four white rhinos. We are seeking an ambitious, team oriented, and outgoing person. The successful candidate will have a proven track record of elephant training, husbandry and management and is fluent in a Scandinavian language and/or English.
2008-11-27 - Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
Local residents of Cot Pangee village have urged authorities in Aceh Jaya District to deal with elephants which have run amok and killed one villager. "I notice that despite a casualty and damages in hectares of crops, there is no effort to solve the elephant problem in Cot Pangee village," Saudi M Daud, an inhabitant of Aceh Jaya, told ANTARA here on Thursday. Since November 25, 2008, a herd of elephants have run amok in Cot Pangee village, around 130 km west of Banda Aceh. The herd killed a lo...
2008-11-26 - Paignton, United Kingdom.
SAFETY barriers on the elephant enclosure have been improved at Paignton Zoo after an inspection found unsupervised small children could climb in. The zoo increased the three bar visitor fence to five bars to comply with an independent inspection report as a condition of the zoo licence. The report said parts of the railings 'were insufficient as barriers' in places where dense bamboo had been cut back 'and had not yet grown sufficiently, such that unsupervised small children might gain access t...
2008-11-26 - Jakarta, Indonesia.
A herd of wild elephants went on a rampage in Indonesia's north-westernmost province of Aceh, killing one person and destroying property, state-run media reported Wednesday. A herd estimated at 13 pachyderms entered Cot Pengee village in Aceh Jaya district during the past several days, forcing residents to flee their homes for safety. Antara news agency quoted local community leader Iskandar Musa saying residents tried to drive the wild animals away with traditional methods, such as making loud ...
2008-11-26 - New York, United States.
They are the world's unlikeliest contenders heading to Nepal for the world's unlikeliest sport. Meet the New York Blue, America's elephant polo team. Now elephants are hard to come by in New York. Large motor vehicles are not. So before flying this week to the World Elephant Polo tournament, the New York Blue's seven adventurers practiced swinging at small white balls from the roofs of two SUVs in an empty beachside car park.
2008-11-26 - Hamburg, Germany.
Four-day-old Russelchen - which means 'little trunk' in German - had great fun exploring the elephant house, and is set to be a massive hit with the public. But can he really be the new Knut, the cute polar bear who won the hearts of people around the world with his antics at Berlin Zoo? Russelchen bravely tried out everything his bigger friends were doing – blowing his trunk, having a hearty drink and going for a splash around. But his first swimming attempt was cut short by his cautio...
2008-11-26 - Memphis, United States.
The Memphis Zoo has another big reason to be thankful this year. This morning, “Gina,” a 25-year-old African elephant, became the third resident in a growing herd of African elephants at the Memphis Zoo. The Memphis Zoo acquired Gina from a private owner. She joins the Zoo’s two other African elephant cows - “Tyranza,” age 44, and “Asali,” age 23. Asali is currently pregnant, and due in July 2009.
2008-11-26 - Jalpaiguri, India.
Elephant menace has grown alarmingly in Jalpaiguri district this year and the forest department has clearly failed to contain the leviathans in the forests. It admits so too. Speaking on the subject, the chief conservator of forest, North Bengal Dr Sylvan Patel admitted the point and said that developing communication with the villagers is essential for handling elephant raids. “We have only four elephant squads at the Malbazaar, Ramsai, Khunia and Binnaguri ranges respectively under the Wild ...
2008-11-25 - Kampala, Uganda.
It may not be quite as bad as the Three Bears returning home to find Goldilocks sleeping in one of their beds, but Ugandan villagers returning to the villages they abandoned during the East African nation's civil war are being met with a rather large surprise. "Elephants are moving into the villages," says Sam Mwandha, operations director for the state-owned Uganda Wildlife Authority. Much of Uganda's northern region lies in the so-called elephant corridor, a vast tropical flat terrain that adjo...
2008-11-25 - Melbourne, Australia. Bridie Smith
A TEAM of researchers working at Melbourne Zoo believes new techniques for freezing elephant sperm will prove the breakthrough the endangered species needs. And the zoo's super-stud Bong Su — a 34-year-old bull regarded as one of the world's most fertile Asian elephants because of his high sperm count — will play a key part, with the frozen sperm to be made available to overseas zoos.
2008-11-25 - London, United Kingdom.
Britney Spears fans can expect a treat next Saturday when the Womanizer singer takes to the X Factor stage. Her friend Brian Friedman told the official X Factor website: "She is going to be doing a massive performance. "You know her album is called Circus, so we're going to be seeing a circus vibe coming in". He added: "I wouldn't be surprised if there were elephants because this is The X Factor - and we go big here"! Mariah Carey, Leona Lewis and Take That might have performed on the hit show i...
2008-11-24 - Pattaya, Thailand. Dr. Harald M. Schwammer
The International Elephant Foundation and Mahidol University are pleased to announce the International Elephant Research Symposium November 24-26, 2008 (New Date) at the Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens, Pattaya, Thailand, to match with the Surin Elephant Round-Up. This will make the Surin Elephant Round-Up the pre-tour to the 2008 International Elephant Conservation and Research Symposium. This important symposium will concentrate on the research and conservation needs of captive and wild pop...
2008-11-24 - Colne, United Kingdom.
This week takes us back to 1890 and a wonderful Victorian scene showing a troupe of elephants perambulating along Keighley Road, Colne. The circus in town was Lord John Sangers, which toured Great Britain for more than 150 years and this premier travelling circus, as well as Indian and African elephants, had lions, tigers, black panthers, giraffes, brown bears, polar bears, zebras, camels, Appaloosa horses and not forgetting the acrobats, high wire artistes, clowns and the ring master himself, i...
2008-11-23 - Mysore, India.
Forty-two year old Belliyappa often spoke of sending his son to a big city college for higher education because he wanted his son to explore the world. But, too soon, his dreams were trampled by an elephant on Friday. Belliyappa, a small farmer in Napoklu in Kodagu district, was found dead near his farm here on Friday. He bore all the marks of having been crushed under the mighty feet of an elephant.
2008-11-23 - Hamburg, Germany.
A newly born elephant baby plays with its mother Yashoda at the Hagenbeck Tierpark (animal park) in the northern German city of Hamburg. The 90 centimetre in height and 95 kilo in weight baby Asian elephant was born on November 21.
2008-11-22 - Surin, Thailand.
Surin, the northeastern province known as ''the Land of Elephants'', has been holding the annual Elephant Round-up for nearly half a century. This year, the exciting spectacle is scheduled to take place November 22-23 in the compound of the Elephant Study Centre. Surin natives are naturally skilled in rounding up wild elephants as well as taming them. This upcoming 48th edition will boast seven eye-catching performances with no less than 200 trained elephants showcasing their extraordinary talen...
2008-11-22 - Pennsylvania, United States.
Scientists are a decade or two away from recreating the extinct woolly mammoth, according to a Pennsylvania State University researcher. The Colombian mammoth, the southern cousin of the woolly mammoth, roamed the eastern New Mexico plains up to 10,000 years ago. Matt Hillsman, the curator of Eastern New Mexico University’s Blackwater Draw Museum, said remains of the Colombian mammoth were found at the Black Water Draw dig site.
2008-11-22 - Surin, Thailand. Veronica Matheson
FOUR old men with weather-beaten faces stand by their ancestral spirit house in the small village of Ban Ta Klang in northeastern Thailand to make offerings to protect the village elephants, who are off to the annual elephant festival in the nearby city of Surin. Offerings -- including a bottle of beer, some home-brewed whisky and a pig's head -- sit on a table as one of the old men chants incantations while another lights incense sticks, and another plays droning music on a horn that looks like...
2008-11-21 - Bewdley, United Kingdom.
Elephants at West Midlands Safari Park have been played rock and roll music to help them relax.
2008-11-21 - Sonepur, India.
Elephant dung is selling like hot cake at the famous annual cattle fair here for use as a mosquito repellent and also as fuel. Over 70 elephants are at the fair this year. They are brought here for show, as their sale at the fair is banned under wildlife protection laws, said another forest department official, CP Khanduja. Elephants are big attractions at the fair, especially for tourists. But there are unofficial reports that elephants are bought and sold at the fair in the garb of gifting the...
2008-11-21 - Kolkata, India.
A six-month-old elephant that strayed from the herd and fell into a ring-well at Pedothorang in Bagmundi block of West Bengal’s Purulia district was rescued after about 10 hours on Thursday. The staff of the local forest division and villagers had to first placate the mother elephant to reach the spot. Paddy stacks and mud were thrown into the 15-feet-deep well after initial efforts to draw out the baby elephant with ropes failed, K Balamurugan, local divisional forest officer told The Hindu o...
2008-11-20 - Pennsylvania, United States. Miller W, Drautz DI, Ratan A, Pusey B, Qi J, Lesk AM, Tomsho LP, Packard MD, Zhao F, Sher A, Tikhonov A, Raney B, Patterson N, Lindblad-Toh K, Lander ES, Knight JR, Irzyk GP, Fredrikson KM, Harkins TT, Sheridan S, Pringle T, Schuster SC., Pennsylvania State University, Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics
In 1994, two independent groups extracted DNA from several Pleistocene epoch mammoths and noted differences among individual specimens. Subsequently, DNA sequences have been published for a number of extinct species. However, such ancient DNA is often fragmented and damaged, and studies to date have typically focused on short mitochondrial sequences, never yielding more than a fraction of a per cent of any nuclear genome. Here we describe 4.17 billion bases (Gb) of sequence from several mammoth ...
2008-11-20 - Chiang Mai, Thailand.
A Thai elephant has become pregnant after IVF treatment, boosting hopes in the species' fight against extinction. Vets confirmed that Phang Sao, a 26-year-old elephant, responded well to the procedure which involved injecting her with frozen sperm. An elephant is pregnant for a 22-month period and Phang Sao is expected to deliver her artificially-bred calf between August and September next year. She is being given special care by the vets in Mae Sa Elephant Camp in Chiang Mai to avoid a miscarri...
2008-11-19 - Auckland, New Zealand.
Auckland Zoo elephants Kashin and Burma could become the last elephants in a New Zealand zoo as a result of Auckland City Council budget cuts. The zoo wants to build a herd of elephants as part of a succession plan for Kashin, who turned 40 on Sunday. But the council has not set aside the $5 million cost in its 10-year budget. The future of the popular female elephants was raised at a council meeting yesterday, where Mayor John Banks and his Citizens & Ratepayers allies were looking to cut hundr...
2008-11-19 - Bangalore, India. Preethi Nagaraj
The rogue elephant 'Kyata' which crushed his mahout Bora to death recently, has been sent to kraal – a place where wild and restless elephants are tamed – in Moorkal, within Nagarhole forest range. The nine year old Kyata after killing his mahout, had stood guard of the body for nearly 12 hours without food and water. It was only after many attempts that Bora's body was lifted and cremated.
2008-11-19 - San Andreas, United States. Mike Taylor
Exactly how a five-ton animal communicates with its friends and family came into focus as an expert visited San Andreas. Dr. Joyce Poole-who has lived with elephants in Africa's savannah for more than 27 years-described her experiences to more than 100 people Saturday at ARK 2000, the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary. She recounted her time spent working on the Amboseli Elephant Research Project at Amboseli National Park in Kenya, a 57-square-mile park near Mount Kilimanjaro.
2008-11-18 - Vienna, United States. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation press release
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation proudly announces the birth of a healthy female Asian elephant – marking the twenty-first birth in what is already the most successful Asian elephant breeding program in the Western Hemisphere. The calf named Sundara, which means “beautiful” in Hindi, was born on Nov. 9, 7:15 p.m. at 310 pounds, and is an offspring of 39-year-old Sally and 35-year-old Charlie. Sally has given birth before as part of the Ringling Bros. ...
2008-11-18 - Dehra Dun, India.
An elephant was found dead in the Jim Corbett National Park, taking the number of pachyderm deaths in the sanctuary this year to eight. The 40-year-old tuskless elephant died on Monday apparently after being attacked by a herd of tuskers in the park, forest officials said on Tuesday. The officials said deep wounds on its body and footprints of several elephants were found in the area. The pachyderm was buried after a post-mortem, they said.
2008-11-18 - Marshalls Creek, United States. Beth Brelje
With shelves of bones everywhere, the Phil Fraley Productions studio could be a dog's dream come true. The prehistoric bones there are not for gnawing, however, but for rebuilding history. The Marshalls Creek mastodon is one of the Pittsburgh company's latest projects. The nearly complete mastodon skeleton was discovered in a peat bog in Marshalls Creek, just behind Wendy's restaurant, in 1968. While excavating peat, John Leap and Paul Strauser of Lakeside Peat Humus Co. pulled a mastodon skull ...
2008-11-18 - Accra, Ghana. Anita Nyarko
artefact sellers were at the weekend arrested at the Arts Centre in Accra for allegedly possessing ivory in the country. The suspects, who are currently on police enquiry bail, are Tahiru Haruna, 29, Mohammed Kabiru, 29, Rose Mensah, 25, Atta Issah, 30, and Razak Tahiru 18. The others are Yakubu Benjamin, 45, Garba Ibrahim, 55, Musa Ali, 40, Jibril Alhassan 27, Yakubu Osman, 28, and Samaila Alahassan. They are being charged under the Wildlife Conservation Regulation LI 685 of 1971 which makes it...
2008-11-18 - Bangalore, India. Vidya TN, Sukumar R, Melnick DJ., Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science
Recent phylogeographic studies of the endangered Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) reveal two highly divergent mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages, an elucidation of which is central to understanding the species's evolution. Previous explanations for the divergent clades include introgression of mtDNA haplotypes between ancestral species, allopatric divergence of the clades between Sri Lanka or the Sunda region and the mainland, historical trade of elephants, and retention of divergent lineages du...
2008-11-17 - Nairobi, Kenya.
A tonne of ivory items and 57 suspects were netted in a four-month operation billed Africa's largest-ever crackdown on wildlife crime, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said Monday. The crackdown -- code-named Operation Baba -- also seized cheetah, leopard, serval cat and python skins as well as hippo teeth at several markets, airports and border crossings in Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia. "All the participating countries simultaneously struck at the illegal domestic markets ...
2008-11-16 - Bangalore, India.
The High Court of Karnataka on Friday directed the state and Central governments to submit by December 9, 2008 a comprehensive report on the spate of elephant deaths in the Nagarahole-Bandipur belt, especially the alleged killing of four pachyderms in Nanjangud taluk of Chamarajanagar district on November 5 last. Hearing a suo motu public interest litigation, a division bench comprising Chief Justice P D Dinakran and Justice V G Sabahit said: "It is most unfortunate and inhuman. We should be ash...
2008-11-15 - Houston, United States.
The Houston Zoo family came together Saturday to remember the 2-year-old elephant known as Mac. Mac, the largest Asian elephant born in captivity at 384 pounds, died last Sunday after contracting elephant herpesvirus. Staff and supporters of the zoo gathered at the McNair Asian Elephant Habitat to remember the loss. In a press release, the zoo's spokesman thanked the public for their outreach during the difficult time.
2008-11-14 - Kurunegala correspondent, Sri Lanka. S. M. Wijayaratne
According to the recent survey conducted by the Department of Wildlife Conservation, it has been revealed that during the past nine months of 2008, 60 wild elephants have died and 24 human beings have died following attacks by wild elephants in the North Western zone of the wildlife conservation. In the year 2007, 33 humans and 73 wild elephants have died of this ongoing conflict.
2008-11-14 - Bangalore, India.
Even as the government confirmed "cyanide poison in ragi balls" as a cause for the elephants' death, the Karnataka High Court on Friday directed the Forest Department to find out the culprits behind the episode in Kappasoge village near Nanjangud and submit a report before December 9. After registering a suo motu case on the elephants’ death, the division bench comprising Chief Justice P D Dinakaran and Justice V G Sabhahit said “It is an inhumane act, we call them animals, we should be asha...
2008-11-14 - Kruger National Park, South Africa. Alex Morales
South Africa may start its first elephant culls since 1994 next year to protect other species harmed by their destruction of habitats. South Africa's elephant population has swelled to 17,000 from 200 in 1900 when hunting had slashed their numbers, Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, South Africa's environment minister, said Nov. 12 in an interview in London. That's leading to overgrazing that threatens animal species including rhinos and antelopes, he said.
2008-11-14 - Cleveland, United States.
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is seeking an experienced Animal Keeper to work with its three African elephants which are temporarily located at the Columbus Zoo until the Zoo’s new African Elephant Crossing exhibit is completed in 2010. Qualifications: Must have a bachelor’s degree in animal sciences or related field plus 6 months of elephant experience. This position requires excellent husbandry skills and knowledge, specifically related to the care of elephants at an AZA-accredited institution....
2008-11-12 - Raipur, India.
Elephants too are an election issue in the tribal state Chhattisgarh going to assembly poll later this month. With the jumbo menace affecting northern part of the state comprising of districts like Surguja, Koria, Jashpur, Korba and Raigarh, ruling BJP has in its election manifesto promised a new scheme for development of a corridor for movement of elephants so that they do not stray into human habitations.
2008-11-12 - San Andreas, United States.
On Saturday, November 8, Ned, a severely underweight 21-year-old captive born, male Asian elephant, was confiscated by the USDA. PAWS has agreed to provide a permanent home for Ned as soon as he is strong enough to make the trip to California. An expansion of the existing bull elephant barn and habitat at ARK 2000 will begin immediately. Ned will occupy the Galt sanctuary’s bull elephant area until construction is complete in San Andreas.
2008-11-12 - Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa.
Two elephants from the Brian Boswell Circus are to strike their own gold coins as part of the 2008 Natura coin range. South African Mint Company deputy general manager Natanya van Niekerk said the elephants had been chosen because the company had been inspired by circus owner Brian Boswell's saving of 10 elephant calves from being culled in 1983. Two of the calves grew up as part of the Boswell circus family.
2008-11-12 - Melbourne, Australia.
EMILY Robins was excited when invited to audition for the lead role in a new Australian children's series in which she would both act and sing. "I'd been singing all my life in musical theatre and competitions and stuff like that," says the 19-year-old from New Zealand, who plays a 16-year-old who discovers she is a princess from an exotic, mystical kingdom, in The Elephant Princess. "The fact that they were looking for a singer and an actor was perfect for me."
2008-11-10 - Houston, United States.
Mac, an Asian elephant whose birth was a cause for celebration at the Houston Zoo scarcely more than two years ago, died Sunday night after a brief battle with the elephant herpes virus, zoo officials said this morning. "The entire zoo staff is absolutely devastated," said zoo spokesman Brian Hill. "It's difficult to put into words and describe the attachment that has developed over the past two years. "This is a terrible loss, especially for the elephant keepers and veterinary medical staff who...
2008-11-10 - Eastern Cape, South Africa.
THIS baa-my pair are inseparable after they struck up an unlikely friendship. Orphaned baby elephant Themba was unable to feed himself and faced certain death until Albert the sheep provided some much needed company. The pair now spend every hour together at their home in the Shamwari Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
2008-11-10 - Cologne, Germany.
The Elephant House at Cologne Zoo, built in 1863 in the Moorish style, and originally intended to be temperorary only, turned out to be very long lasting. Finally a new Elephant Park was opened on 19.09.2004. This new project took into consideration the latest knowledge about the way of life of Asian elephants and the best way to look after them in zoos.
2008-11-09 - Hohenwald, United States.
An elephant confiscated by the USDA is on his way to the mid-state. Ned, a 21-year-old male elephant, has been placed in the care of the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald. Ned was taken from his Florida-based circus trainer for what police say was failure to comply with the Animal Welfare Act. The elephant is expected to arrive at the sanctuary tomorrow. Officials at the sanctuary say they will help the elephant recover and find a permanent home.
2008-11-09 - Los Angeles , United States.
A City Council committee has rejected a move to stop work on a $40 million elephant enclosure at the Los Angeles Zoo. The panel's decision came Thursday despite pleas from celebrities such as Lily Tomlin and Bob Barker to instead fund a 60-acre elephant sanctuary in the San Fernando Valley. The council committee declined to take a vote that would have sent the proposal to the full council for consideration. Celebrities who want to remove the elephants from the zoo say living there can harm their...
2008-11-09 - Jalpaiguri , India.
A four-year-old child was tossed to death by a wild elephant at Mantagara in Jalpaiguri district on Sunday sparking protest by villagers who gheraoed forest officials. Forest officials said the baby girl was tossed to the ground by the tusker which strayed into the area and barged into the hut of a tribal family. While the girl's parents scampered to safety mistaking the girl to be away in a neighbour's house, the toddler fell before the jumbo. As a forest team went to the area, they were gherao...
2008-11-09 - Jaipur, India.
The increased influx of tourists may have given a chance to mint money to those from the tourism industry, but the elephants at Amber are having a tough time. One can witness utter chaos during the peak hours for elephant rides with tourists thronging the Amber Fort. Despite the fact that the tourism department has restricted the maximum load for elephants (two tourists per elephant) and just one ride for each animal per day, the 95 elephants at here are having a hard time as mahouts have been f...
2008-11-08 - Tucson, United States.
The opening of the Conservation Learning Center put the Reid Park Zoo one step closer to completing its $12.5 million master plan, which includes a 7-acre expansion and new elephant exhibit. The City Council is funding half of the expansion, provided the Tucson Zoological Society raises the other half of the funds, said Diana Whitman, director of development at the Tucson Zoological Society, the fundraising arm of the zoo.
2008-11-08 - Geneva, Switzerland.
A controversial series of legal ivory auctions in southern Africa should undercut poachers who have been charging exorbitant prices in key Asian markets, United Nations conservationists said Friday. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which regulates international trade in endangered species, allowed four African countries South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe to hold one-off sales to buyers from China and Japan.
2008-11-07 - Melbourne, Australia. Nathanael Cooper
There is no shortage of big stars who hail from the Sunshine Coast, but none of them are quite as big as our latest celebrity. In fact, she's so big that while most stars have their own trailer on set, this one has a whole truck to herself.Siam, an Asian elephant that weighs more than 500kg, resides at Australia Zoo and has recently finished filming a role in Network Ten's upcoming children's drama, The Elephant Princess. Shot in Melbourne, The Elephant Princess is about a young girl who discove...
2008-11-07 - Bangalore, India. Deepa Balakrishnan
The Karnataka High Court has ordered an inquiry into the increasing number of unnatural elephant deaths in Mysore. On Wednesday four elephants were badly wounded after getting electrocuted near the Kabini canal. Soon some villagers noticed that all the four were dead and the carcasses were floating in the canal. "We come by this canal everyday and suddenly saw these carcasses floating in the canal. We called the police to see what can be done," a villager Siddaraju said.
2008-11-07 - Johannesburg, South Africa. Lisa Schlein
Conservationists say ivory auctions in four Southern African countries this week have raised more than $15 million for conservation efforts. The ivory sale was organized by CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. The organization says the money will go for African elephant conservation and to support local communities. Lisa Schlein reports from Geneva. Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe sold more than 100 tons of ivory to Chinese and Japanese accredited tra...
2008-11-07 - Thimpu, Bhutan. Steve Herman
Although the young king told his Buddhist subjects he is wanting for nothing and has no material desires, in accordance with tradition, he was presented with a number of gifts. Among them: several satchels of coins, nine bags of cereals, five bales of textiles and a number of animals, including three elephants, several sheep, a pair of yaks, two horses and a mule.
2008-11-07 - Thiruvananthapuram, India.
Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa landed in a controversy for gifting a elephant to a temple in Kerala with animal rights activists alleging violation of wildlife rules including that the person donating a pachyderm should be declared "pauper" by law. Kerala Chief Wildlife Warden J K Tewari has asked the Divisional Forest officer in Kannur to look into the matter and submit a report following a complaint by animal rights campaigners,
2008-11-06 - Chicago, United States. Bob Cline
Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th) didn’t get what she wanted tonight when she half heartedly agreed to an elephant protection bill that was no where near what she wanted to see in Chicago. Her original request would have eliminated the use of an elephant management tool called an ankus that is used by every elephant Professional throughout the world including Zoos and the Circuses that visit Chicago.
2008-11-05 - London, United Kingdom. Steve Connor
Scientists in Japan have refined a cloning technique that has enabled researchers to clone apparently healthy mice from the frozen corpse of a mouse that had been kept in a freezer for 16 years at a temperature of -20C. The scientists believe the study shows that it might be possible in the future to use the same techniques to clone creatures from the frozen tissue of animals found buried in permafrost regions, for example, the frozen corpses of mammoths.
2008-11-05 - Mysore, India.
Nine elephants in seven days. This is the tragic tally of poor jumbos which have met their gory end owing to the "shocking" means the villagers adopt to keep the creature at bay in Mysore district alone. What led to the 'massacre' of elephants is the electrified fencing with which the farmers protect their fields. While the government has made it mandatory to use only solar powered barbed wires, farmers often tap electricity illegally and allow high voltage to pass through the wires.
2008-11-05 - Atlanta, United States.
Officials at Zoo Atlanta say a pregnant African elephant that died suddenly last month had pneumonia. Officials announced the finding Wednesday after receiving preliminary necropsy results for 26-year-old Dottie. Still, zoo officials have not yet said whether the disease is what killed the elephant Oct. 28. “We are saddened by the sudden loss of Dottie. I know our veterinary and animal management team worked diligently to ensure she received the best care and treatment possible. This is especi...
2008-11-05 - Ayutthaya, Thailand. Samrit Jeamjaruanpornkul, Wannapa Phetdee
Severe flooding yesterday forced the evacuation of more than 80 elephants from a sanctuary in Ayutthaya's Suanprik tambon. The pachyderms are being given temporary shelter at Si Suriyothai Park and other nonflooded areas in Suanprik. Meanwhile, the elephant camp's owner, Laitongrian Meepan, who has about 100 of the beasts under his care, is threatening to bring the entire herd to Bangkok and demand that the Royal Irrigation Department compensate him for the damages the floods have done to his fi...
2008-11-05 - Nairobi, Kenya. Richard Leakey
I am deeply concerned about the ongoing one-off ivory auction that started on 28 October in Namibia and ended on Wednesday, 6 November 2008 in South Africa. I have spent many years looking at issues of elephant conservation and ivory trade and played a major role in successfully eliminating the massive ivory poaching that characterized what is considered the darkest period for African elephants in Kenya in the late 1980s, I believe that auctioning the ivory stockpiles would cause poaching to inc...
2008-11-05 - Brooklyn, United States.
Coney Island is home to several iconic landmarks of American recreation. The Cyclone, the Wonder Wheel and the Parachute Jump come to mind. But it’s also aM graveyard of amusements—so many ostentatious attractions have come and gone, such as the Elephant Hotel. Situated on Surf Avenue and West 5th Street, this enormous elephant made of pine and tin—often referred to as the Coney Island Elephant—burnt down in 1896. The five people inside at the time of the blaze were safely guided to safe...
2008-11-05 - Miami, United States.
Miami Metro Zoo is accepting applications for 1 open elephant keeper position. The zoo currently houses both Asian and African elephants in a protected contact program and is in the initial phases of expanding our program and conservation efforts. We are seeking an energetic, team oriented, and outgoing person to join our staff as we move the program forward. The ideal candidate will possess a 2 year degree in a science related field, at least 2 years of elephant handling experience, and a stron...
2008-11-04 - Portland, United States. Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian
A $125 million bond measure that would provide more space and more natural surroundings for the Oregon Zoo's elephants, polar bears, chimps and other animals won handily Tuesday. Zoo supporters acknowledged the difficulty of passing a multimillion-dollar bond measure just as the state and national economies are flagging, but said a long list of improvements is necessary to improve conditions at the zoo. Metro area voters, including supporters who have contributed to record attendance at the zoo,...
2008-11-03 - Calgary, Canada.
The Calgary Zoo is learning more about the death of Malti the baby elephant. The little pachyderm died this weekend, less than a week after being diagnosed with elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus (EEHV). The disease kills by attacking the cells that line an elephant's blood vessels in the heart, liver and other organs. The virus hits suddenly and causes internal bleeding and heart failure, killing the animal within a few days. The virus seems to lie dormant in adult elephants and is spread t...
2008-11-03 - Bangkok, Thailand.
A wildlife sanctuary in Thailand has come up with an innovative way of keeping elephants away from farmer's crops – unwanted CDs. The Elephant Conservation Network (ECN), working alongside the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), is the first to use the CDs as light reflectors to deter the elephants from destroying Thailand's crops. Ecologists in the country claim that "crop-raiding" commonly occurs on traditional elephant forest routes with the large animals devouring crops and destroying tree...
2008-11-02 - Auckland, New Zealand.
KASHIN THE elephant's snot is clear and gritty. "Blow into her trunk," instructs the zookeeper. "She wants to smell your breath." Looking up an elephant's nose is like peering into twin surgical wounds. Pink and glistening tunnels, 1.6m long, containing more than 40,000 muscles, useful for pushing over logs, snuffling in the dirt and getting to know human visitors.
2008-11-02 - Washington, United States. Amy Hotz
During the 1950s and 1960s American readers clamored for the sporting adventure books and magazine articles of Wilmington native Robert Ruark. With Hemingway-esque flare, Ruark described real and fictional hunting trips from his grandfather’s backyard to the wilds of Africa. At 10 a.m. Monday, a relic of one of those adventures, and other personal items that once belonged to the author, will be auctioned at Doyle New York in New York City. The first item in the lot is a pair of elephant tusks ...
2008-11-01 - Bronx, New York, United States. Stephen Blake, Sharon L. Deem, Samantha Strindberg, Fiona Maisels, Ludovic Momont, Inogwabini-Bila Isia, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, William B. Karesh, Michael D. Kock
A dramatic expansion of road building is underway in the Congo Basin fuelled by private enterprise, international aid, and government aspirations. Among the great wilderness areas on earth, the Congo Basin is outstanding for its high biodiversity, particularly mobile megafauna including forest elephants (Loxodonta africana cyclotis). The abundance of many mammal species in the Basin increases with distance from roads due to hunting pressure, but the impacts of road proliferation on the movements...
2008-11-01 - Calgary, Canada. DAWN WALTON
The baby elephant that has been drawing huge crowds at the Calgary Zoo is gravely ill with a virus that is almost always fatal and has been responsible for killing dozens of pachyderms in captivity and in the wild. Officials said Friday afternoon that blood tests have confirmed that Malti, an almost 15-month-old female Asian elephant, has elephant herpes virus, a condition that attacks the circulatory system. Zoo veterinarians are working around the clock and administer anti-viral medication to ...
2008-11-01 - Calgary, Canada.
The Calgary Zoo's baby elephant has died, despite round-the-clock efforts to save her. Malti was diagnosed with a rare, but deadly disease called elephant herpesvirus on Friday. The disease attacks the lining of the blood vessels. It's suspected she got it from one of the adult elephants which can carry the virus without ever becoming ill themselves. The Elephant Crossing area of the zoo was closed to the public Saturday. All of the elephants were kept outside while staff worked feverishly to ke...
2008-10-31 - Portland, United States. NATHALIE WEINSTEIN
When the Oregon Zoo opened in 1959 in Washington Park, the exhibits were designed at a time when naturalistic exhibits were not a concept, and instead focused on modern design, asymmetrical structures and bright colors. Over the years, the facilities have become outdated and detrimental to the health of the animals that inhabit them, zoo officials say. That’s why the Metro Council, Oregon Zoo Foundation, zoo staff and community leaders have been working to develop a bond measure for the past f...
2008-10-31 - Calcutta, India. CHANDAN SARMAH
It has been 30 years since Tapan Sinha gave us Safed Hathi — the heartwarming tale of two orphaned children and their protector, a white elephant. Thirty years and the dynamics between this large animal and rural India have changed enough to prompt an Assamese filmmaker to name his documentary on elephant movement A Friend Turned Foe. Selected for the non-feature section of the Indian Panorama for the forthcoming International Film Festival of India, 2008, A Friend Turned Foe, by Gautam Saikia...
2008-10-28 - Atlanta, United States. LEON STAFFORD, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The elephant, which had recently gone into the third trimester of her 24-month pregnancy, was 26. Zoo Atlanta’s veterinary team, along with the Department of Pathology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia, will perform a necropsy. “We are saddened by the sudden loss of Dottie,” Zoo Atlanta President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Kelly said in a prepared statement. “I know our veterinary and animal management team worked diligently to ensure she received...
2008-10-27 - Knysna, South Africa.
In 1876, the Knysna elephants, that freely ranged the forest and fynbos areas in the southern cape, numbered about 500 individuals. The numbers declined rapidly as increasing numbers of woodcutters and hunters settled in the area. By 1908 the population status was estimated at 20 individuals, dwindling further to an estimated 11 by 1970. By 1980 a mere 3 individuals were believed to still roam the area.
2008-10-27 - Cape Town, South Africa.
An elephant ivory auction totaling over 19,800 lb (9,000 kg) will begin tomorrow in Namibia. This is the first time in nearly 10 years that international trade in elephant ivory has been sanctioned by the UN-backed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The sales will continue over the next two weeks in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa, with a grand total of 119 tons (108 tonnes) of ivory up for bidding. This accounts for an estimated 10,000+ dead elephants.
2008-10-27 - Syracuse, United States. Lorrell Walter
Calling all pumpkin producers! The Rosamond Gifford Zoo is looking for someone to donate a giant gourd for the annual “Squishing of the Squash,” on Saturday, November 8. Each year, the zoo’s elephants and many of the other animals enjoy a post-Halloween pumpkin feast. While pumpkins have been secured for the zoo’s smaller pumpkin fans, the zoo has been unable to secure a pumpkin of pachyderm proportion.
2008-10-27 - Washington, United States.
This position is located in the Animal Programs, Large Mammal & Elephant Unit of the National Zoological Park in Washington, DC. This animal keeper position works with elephants and other wild/exotic large mammals and performs a variety of duties that ensure the proper care, feeding, exhibition, and propagation of the animals, many of which are rare and endangered.
2008-10-26 - Beijing, China. Dinah Gardner
There are fewer than 300 wild elephants left in China, so when Jeremy McGill, an American tourist, stumbled across a group of adults earlier this year in a nature reserve in Yunnan province, near the border with Laos, he whipped out his camera and started taking pictures. It almost cost him his life.´"I was alone when I came across the four elephants," he said. "One scooped me up into his mouth and bit me. My body was folded in half, my head between my knees, and then the elephant spat me out a...
2008-10-26 - Portland, United States. Brooks Burford
Samudra, now 2 months old, joins the Oregon Zoo's herd to "squish the squash" on Friday. Every year the zoo's Asian elephants are presented with pumpkins which they proceed to play with and tromp into squishy blobs of goo. "Sam" turned 2 months of age on Thursday. That morning he weighed 473 pounds "and he's growing 2 to 3 pounds every day, just on mother's milk." Elephant keeper Bob Lee says Samudra is now teething, chomping and chewing on leaves and branches.
2008-10-26 - New Delhi, India. Neha Sinha
In a first-of-its-kind move, Project Elephant has released funds for setting up rescue and rehabilitation centres across the country to accommodate ill or ageing working elephants. There are an estimated 3,500-3,600 privately-owned captive elephants in the country and most of them are made to work. Approximately Rs 90 lakh has been released for a 400-acre elephant rescue centre to be run in Haryana, officials from the Ministry of Environment and Forests said. Funds have also been released for el...
2008-10-25 - New Orleans, United States.
Im right in the middle of running an elephant. Can you call back in like half an hour?" Michael Rowe pocketed his cell phone and returned full attention to clicking off Jean's paces. It was after hours at the Audubon Zoo _ one of four zoos where Rowe is studying how elephants, which can't sweat or pant to bring their temperatures down when they get too hot, deal with heat and cold. Regulation of body heat hasn't been studied much in very large animals, Rowe said. His doctoral research may have i...
2008-10-25 - Guwahati, India.
Noted wildlife filmmaker Gautam Saikia’s documentary A Friend turned Foe has been selected for the 39th Indian Panorama scheduled to be held in Goa from November 23. The 15-minute documentary that highlights the intensifying man-elephant conflict in Assam has been chosen for the non-feature category of the Panorama. “The documentary depicts the worsening man-elephant conflict, and has primarily been shot in Golaghat district, which is one of the worst-affected areas of the conflict,” Saiki...
2008-10-25 - Fairfax, Australia. CLAIRE MCENTEE
Trade Me is under pressure to follow online auction giant eBay's lead and ban the sale of ivory products. The United States-based site banned ivory products after the International Fund for Animal Welfare found more than 4000 illegal elephant ivory listings. IFAW Asia Pacific director Erica Martin said online trading sites, including Trade Me, should follow eBay's lead. "They should put immediate bans on ivory sales in place".
2008-10-25 - Bengkulu, Indonesia.
A group of wild elephants in the Seblat Elephant Training Center (PLG) broke loose and damaged 1,256 oil palm trees of PT Agricinal in Putri Hijau subdistrict, North Bengkulu regency, and a security post near the plantation. PLG Seblat coordinator Aswin Bangun said on Monday that the rampant illegal loggings and damage on the elephent training center had disturbed the elephants and eventually broke loose seeking for food.
2008-10-24 - Amuru, Uganda.
Marauding elephants in northern Uganda have added to the challenges faced by civilians trying to rebuild their lives in the wake of 20 years of civil war, destroying their crops and prompting some to return to displaced people’s (IDP) camps they had only recently left. "The villagers are scared of the elephants; some of them have sought refuge in huts they had left in the [IDP] camps," John Bosco Okullo, a local leader in Amuru District told IRIN.
2008-10-24 - London, United Kingdom.
Following the announcement that more than 108 tonnes of stockpiled elephant ivory in Southern Africa will be auctioned between 28th October and 6th November 2008, fear is mounting that the most vulnerable elephant populations across Africa and Asia will be unable to withstand the increased levels of poaching that are predicted to occur as a result of these sales. The ivory auction, taking place in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, was approved by members of the Convention on Internat...
2008-10-23 - Odessa, Ukraine.
On following site you can see some pictures of Taruns tusk-operation!
2008-10-23 - Praia da Rocha, Portugal.
USING ANIMALS as part of a circus act is a controversial subject that both animal activists and those who keep the animals are passionate about. Following reports of animal abuse as featured in The Resident October 3, The Resident’s DAISY SAMPSON visited the Victor Hugo Cardinali circus while it was in Praia da Rocha to investigate the conditions of the animals being kept at the circus.
2008-10-23 - Providence, United States.
The African exhibit at the Roger Williams Park Zoo officially opened it's new elephant yard today, along with the recently renovated Elephant and Giraffe Pavilion. The 'Girls,' as the elephants are affectionately referred to by zoo staff, tried out their new yard for the first time last week. Elephant Keeper Brett Haskins, explains, "The first day, they just kind of crept out and looked around. But, the second day, they went berzerk, trumpeting and running around like 'this is our new home!'" Al...
2008-10-23 - Chennai, India.
An elephant owned by actor Jayaram recently received the coveted Gajarajapattam award in Kerala. The elephant, known as Thiruvanikkavu Kannan, is no ordinary elephant. He is very soft-natured and is like a member of my family,” says a proud Jayaram. An ardent elephant lover, Jayaram says that he has been crazy about elephants since his childhood and recalls that he used to go to all temple festivals just to have a glimpse of the gorgeous creatures. Jayaram bought Kannan when his son Kalidas wa...
2008-10-23 - Edmonton, Canada. VICTORIA HANDYSIDES
Lucy the elephant is healthy, but too sick to survive a move, staff at the Valley Zoo insist, responding to calls for her be sent to a sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn. “Aside from her tooth problem and her arthritis, she’s a very healthy elephant,” said the zoo’s veterinarian, Milton Ness. “Under stress, we’re worried her capacity to breathe could be diminished.”
2008-10-23 - Vienna, United States. Feld Entertainment, Inc.
Feld Entertainment is conducting a vigorous defense in the lawsuit, ASPCA, et al. v. Feld Entertainment, Inc. which is scheduled to go to trial on October 27, 2008 in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. The case, which began more than eight years ago, is being pursued by four animal special interest groups against Feld Entertainment, Inc., the parent company of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey(R) Circus. "Animal special interest groups are distorting the facts by making false allegation...
2008-10-22 - San Antonio, United States.
Peggy MacDonald was famous with her husband, Mack MacDonald, for the training and presentation of the Polack Brothers’ Shrine Circus elephant act, known as the Besalou elephants, in the US. She was born in a tent at Glenwood, Minnesota, in 1923, during the Saturday night performance of the Henderson Comedy Company. In 1945 the Henderson family was engaged with the Bailey Brothers’ Circus in America. In 1946 its owner, Bob Stevens, took on a young man to train his new elephant group. Mack Mac...
2008-10-21 - New York, United States. FELICITY BARRINGER, New York Times
In response to growing pressure from international law enforcement agencies and conservation groups, eBay, the online auction giant, announced Monday that it would ban all commerce in ivory, including most heirlooms, to avoid providing a market that will encourage the slaughter of endangered elephants. EBay says it will no longer allow advertisements like this one, for elephant tusks. The ban also extends to most heirlooms. The announcement, made to the company’s merchants and customers, came ...
2008-10-21 - Los Angeles , United States.
Bob Barker, Alicia Silverstone and other celebrities have joined a city councilman's efforts to remove elephants from the Los Angeles Zoo and into a massive sanctuary where they can roam free—or at least close to it. Councilman Tony Cardenas, accompanied by several celebrities at a press conference Tuesday, announced his desire to halt construction of the zoo's elephant habitat and use the money to build a 60-acre sanctuary operated by the zoo.
2008-10-21 - Bangor, Ireland.
A circus has been reported to Northern Ireland's Parades Commission for leading elephants through a street in Bangor, County Down. Alexander Scholl from the Sydney Circus said the elephants were being exercised last week when the police arrived and told him to put them back in a trailer.
2008-10-20 - Dhaka, Bangladesh.
An environmental group focusing on Arakanese wildlife is preparing to record wild elephants in Arakan State with video cameras as the elephant population has declined in recent years, said one environmental worker from Sittwe. The group will be carrying out the plan in the near future in Arakan Roma and the Mayu Range, where wild elephants range. The elephants will be counted by the group via the video cameras.
2008-10-20 - Odessa, Ukraine.
Yesterday, on October 19th, Indian elephant Tarun died in Odessa zoo, IA “Context-Prichernomorie†correspondent reports. This was reported to the agency correspondent today, on October 20th, during the telephone talk by the director of UE “Odessa zoological park†Yury Kucherenko. Yury Kucherenko reminded that in 2000 Odessa zoo refused from performing operation on removal of sore tusks, for performing of which a team of specialists from England came. During this period th...
2008-10-20 - Rourkela, India.
The recent death of an elephant due to electrocution near Sanchebahal jungle some 10 kilometres away from Bamra also displayed a rare glimpse of the solidarity by pachyderms. The elephant which was electrocuted when its trunk touched a high tension wire hanging about 7 feet above the ground was surrounded by a herd of elephants soon after its death. Even though forest officials rushed to the spot upon getting information about the elephant’s death they were surprised to see as many as 18 eleph...
2008-10-19 - Tiruchi, India. R. Rajaram
The Central Zoo Authority has approved a detailed layout of the zoological park to be established by the State Forest Department inside the sprawling Reserve Forest at M.R. Palayam, near here. The officials said animals including deer, sloth bear, Indian gaur, elephant, wild dog, hyena and hippopotamus besides peacock, monkey, salt and fresh water crocodiles, swamp birds and different types of snakes, would be housed in the zoo. The zoo will spread over 300 acres inside the M.R. Palayam reserve ...
2008-10-19 - Kunming, China.
An Asian elephant who was cured of heroin addiction in southwest China has been declared unfit for the wild, local zoo keepers said on Sunday. Four-year-old male Xiguang and five other elephants became the targets of illegal traders at the China-Myanmar border in March 2005. Among the beasts, Xiguang, was fed with bananas smeared with heroin by the smugglers who intended to snare the animal. The elephants were captured by police two months later. Four of them, including Xiguang, were later sent ...
2008-10-19 - Thrissur, India.
Another festival season is coming up in Kerala and elephants are definitely a part of the show. But this time, the state government hopes to bring in more stringent rules to bring down the instances of elephants going berserk and attacking humans. The government realises that it’s not just the noise and heat which makes the elephants go crazy, but also the ill-treatment of elephants by mahouts. Several reports have shown gory pictures of violent abuse of the giants, therefore this year th...
2008-10-18 - Ranchi, India.
He will no longer stop people in their tracks, rummage trucks or invade roadside stalls for food. RTO, the friendly tusker who would roam the forests of West Singhbhum and often venture out into human habitation for food in Noamundi, was found dead deep inside the forest late on Wednesday night. Even though foresters said the elephant had died a natural death, a post-mortem has been done and the animal's viscera preserved for a forensic test.
2008-10-18 - Dallas, United States. DIANA HEIDGERD
An elephant expert whose beach house on the Texas Gulf Coast was destroyed by Hurricane Ike is putting his collection back together — one tooth at a time. Roy Davis evacuated his Bolivar Peninsula home on Sept. 11, two days before Ike slammed the Texas coast. Davis, 57, said Thursday that among the items scattered from his one-bedroom house were prized animal keepsakes from years of working at zoos. "I probably had 30 pieces of modern-day elephants, they shed their teeth, they wear them d...
2008-10-18 - Bandarlampung, Indonesia.
A Lampung resident identified as Hasyim (30) was seriously injured after being trampled on by a herd of wild elephants at the Way Kambas National Park (TNKW) in East Lampung District, Lampung Province, on Friday. TNKW Director MZ Hudiyono here on Saturday confirmed that Hasyim, a resident of Rajabasa Lama village, East Lampung District, suffered serious injuries and was rushed to Bandarlampung General Hospital for intensive medical care after he was trampled down by wild elephants inside the 1,3...
2008-10-18 - Denver, United States.
Zoo elephants Mimi and Dolly have a new place to go when it's time for lunch. Two new feeders where the elephants get their meals are serving up a side of practicality with a design that blends with the natural environment of these several-ton creatures. The feeders, which are roughly six feet tall and weigh 8,000 pounds, provide a number of uses. They resemble tree trunks with various nooks and holes to place food for the elephants to find. This along with scent spots and branches give the elep...
2008-10-18 - Berlin, Germany.
Sara of the Alpha-Omega British School in Spain asks the scientists: Sara: Do elephants have good memories? The answer comes from elephant ecologist Stephen Blake, at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology. He works to conserve habitat for elephants in Central Africa. Stephen Blake: Elephants do have fantastic memories. If you imagine an elephant that lives in a tropical rainforest, one of the most complicated systems on Earth, that elephant has to know where fruit trees are, where good forage...
2008-10-18 - Windhoek, Namibia. Wezi Tjaronda
Some community members of the Malengalenga area in the Caprivi Region have abandoned their maize fields for fear of being attacked by elephants roaming around the area. Malengalenga village is one of the areas where elephants roam freely because it borders the Mamili National Park. During this time, some people leave their homes to go and tend to their maize fields. But due to the havoc the jumbos are causing, some people especially, widows have abandoned their fields. James Lizazi, chairperson ...
2008-10-17 - Twycross, United Kingdom.
An Asian elephant has become the first of its species in the UK to become pregnant by artificial insemination, a zoo said today. Keepers of Noorjahan at Twycross Zoo, in Leicestershire, said the procedure had been 'incredibly successful' and the baby is expected in August next year. The zoo chose artificial insemination because it had no male elephants in its collection. The father is a bull elephant called Emmet, from Whipsnade Zoo.
2008-10-17 - Guwahati, India.
An adult, partially blind elephant was critically injured when it got hit by a goods train near Deepor Beel last night. The female elephant was crossing the track around 9pm when the train, travelling from Azara to Guwahati, hurtled towards it. It hit the elephant at Chakradeo in Deepor Beel, an international wetland. “The elephant, aged between 35 and 40 years, was standing on the track when the train hit her,†a forest official said. Though the train blew its whistle, the elephant ...
2008-10-17 - Uda Walawe, Sri Lanka.
The elephant-human conflict has claimed a high number of deaths from both species. While authorities attempt to protect the elephants, cultivators often lay traps or shoot at the animals who invade their plantations. Several transit homes have been set up to care for the offspring of killed elephants and to send them back to the wild successfully.
2008-10-17 - Pretoria, South Africa.
South Africa will sell 51 tons of stockpiled ivory on November 6 in a once-off sale to China and Japan, the Department of Environmental Affairs said on Wednesday. Chief executive of South African National Parks (SANParks) David Mabunda said the stockpile consisted of ivory that was verified by the secretariat of the UN-backed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) as being of legal origin with data to back the origins. “The ivory emanates from SANParks, Mpumalanga ...
2008-10-17 - Mount Kenya, Kenya. Mark Smith
A teenage soldier training for Afghanistan has already survived one harrowing battle – with a rampaging elephant. Private Stuart Edgar, 18, is lucky to be alive after the enraged wild jumbo attacked him while he was on exercise in Africa. The massive bull elephant kicked him around like a football, battered him with its trunk and tore at him with its deadly tusks. He and his Black Watch comrades had been taking photographs of a herd in the Kenyan bush when the male charged them. Stuart, w...
2008-10-17 - Hunan, China. Sharon Lee
An elephant with a blocked intestinal tract was rescued and relieved after more than seven hours of treatment at Changsha Zoo in Hunan province on Sunday. After honey helped reduce swelling in the Asian elephant's stomach, the 3.2-m-tall specimen finally passed a stool weighing 7 kg with a length of 40 cm and a diameter of 20 cm. The 17-year-old elephant, Pa Mai, had fallen to the ground in pain several times on Sunday afternoon before 20 zoo staff moved it indoors for treatment. Changsha Zoo im...
2008-10-16 - Johannesburg, South Africa.
More than 100 tonnes of ivory will go on auction in four southern African countries in two weeks, in the first sale of stockpiled elephant ivory in nearly a decade, wildlife groups said Wednesday. The sales were approved in July by the UN-backed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and auctions have now been scheduled in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, wildlife officials said. China and Japan are expected to be among the biggest buyers, after CITES agre...
2008-10-16 - Thimphu, Bhutan. Tandin Wangchuk
A temporary home for the three elephants at Serbithang has become a mini zoo with hundreds of people flocking every day to catch a glimpse of the gigantic pachyderm. Caretakers at the temporary home said that they could have easily collected more than Nu 100,000 had they charged visitors since the elephants were brought to Thimphu on October 9 for the Coronation next month. Many Thimphu residents, who’ve never seen elephants in the flesh, drove to Serbithang during the tsechu holidays last we...
2008-10-15 - Auckland, New Zealand.
A travelling circus has come under fire from animal rights campaigners for continuing to use an elephant in its performances. 'Jumbo' is the only circus elephant left in the country, and protesters are comparing her living conditions to solitary confinement. But circus operators and the SPCA say the circus is the best place for her. "We don't believe that circuses are a place for any animals, let alone large exotic animals like this elephant, because most of their days are spent in solitary conf...
2008-10-15 - Medan, Indonesia. Rudianto Sembiring
On 5 october 2008 2 tourist from french come to medan zoo and when they walked arround medan zoo suddenly met with me .so i suprise that one of them is an elephant keeper in french zoo. His name Olivier. We sharing about animal husbandry. and i say thank's so much to them about change experience about animal welfare.
2008-10-14 - Singapore, Singapore. Dhany Osman
Nature lovers looking for more to do will be excited to know that the Singapore Zoo has just introduced boat rides. Since the start of this month, adult visitors can pay $4 for a single trip ticket ($2 for children) for a 20-minute guided ride along the Upper Seletar Reservoir to learn about the area's wildlife. The rides are offered daily. Each of the four boats is named after one of the zoo's animal stars: Pedro the otter, Omar the white tiger, Komali the elephant, and Ah Meng, the zoo's world...
2008-10-14 - St. Petersburg, Russian Federation.
Metabolic rate and body mass do not have any consistent relationship, according to a new study. Anastassia Makarieva, a researcher from Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia, says that most groups of organismsbe it a tiny bacterium, a growing tree, or a gigantic mammalfavour the same optimum metabolic rate. While it has been found in past studies that smaller species within many groups of organisms generally produce more energy within each cell than their larger counterp...
2008-10-13 - Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
FIVE years ago Walter Gwarada was stuck in the office every day, but chance and an impatient American turned him into the “elephant whisperer†of Addo. Gwarada, who came to South Africa in 2003 after working in information technology at a Zimbabwean cellphone operator in Harare, was hired as a manager for a fledgling private game reserve in Addo, where there was an American brought in to train three tame elephants from Knysna to do safaris. But after four weeks the American had deser...
2008-10-12 - Victoria falls, Zimbabwe. Elephant Experience
Our Sophie gave birth to huge bouncing baby bull, last Thurday 9th October. He is strong healthy and Sophie has plenty of milk. As this is her third calf in semi-captivity. The Bull that mated with her was a wild bull, which had everyone running for two weeks, so its a wild and new bloodline. The trainers have named him JUMBO after the late sweet Sondelani Jumbo.
2008-10-12 - Kota Kinabalu, Indonesia.
A growing number of elephants in the State are ending up injured or dead due to human-animal conflicts and this is worrying the Wildlife Department. Its Director, Laurentius Ambu, said a young elephant was found dead from unknown causes in early September. "But we have a bigger issue of elephants getting injured mostly due to man-made snares, then dying from their injuries," he said, in a statement. These traps are usually set by oil palm plantation workers who struggle for additional income by ...
2008-10-12 - Sabah, Indonesia.
Wildlife rangers are finding increasing numbers of Borneo Pygmy elephants injured or killed by snares set by poorly paid oil palm plantation workers, reports Malaysia's Sabah Wildlife Department. "We have a bigger issue of elephants getting injured mostly due to man-made snare traps then dying from their injuries," said Laurentius Ambu, Sabah Wildlife Department Director. "Besides being a cruel and inhumane way to kill wildlife it is also illegal and it leads to injuries and eventual death of no...
2008-10-11 - Washington, United States.
Come quittin’ time I was already running late for a casual dinner with close friends so I speed-walked out of the office and across the street towards the Metro station. I caught a glimmer out of the corner of my eye—something gold and high off the ground. A crowd of people blocked the sidewalk and I groaned as I tried to push through towards my destination. And then I looked up. The glimmer had grown larger as I approached and I finally focused my eyes away from my beeline to...
2008-10-11 - Sabah, United States.
It is increasingly concerned over the rise in the number of injured and dead elephants in the state. In one instance, a 25-year veteran wildlife guide and lecturer was reduced to tears when he saw a calf (young elephant) in excruciating pain after falling prey to a man-made trap in Kinabatangan. SWD director Laurentius Ambu noted that the bigger issue facing the department involved elephants getting injured or maimed, mostly due to man-made traps and subsequently succumbing to the injuries. He s...
2008-10-11 - Ol Pejeta, Kenya. KATHARINE HOURELD
The text message from the elephant flashed across Richard Lesowapir's screen: Kimani was heading for neighboring farms. The huge bull elephant had a long history of raiding villagers' crops during the harvest, sometimes wiping out six months of income at a time. But this time a mobile phone card inserted in his collar sent rangers a text message. Lesowapir, an armed guard and a driver arrived in a jeep bristling with spotlights to frighten Kimani back into the Ol Pejeta conservancy. Kenya is the...
2008-10-11 - Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. Nimal Wijesinghe
The Wildlife Conservation Authorities have planned to set up a number of 'holding grounds' to detain wild jumbos who frequently invade the hamlets. Manjula Amararatne, Assistant Director-in-Charge of North Western Wildlife Conservation Zone told the Sunday Observer that steps are being taken to start two wild elephants detention grounds at Ritigala along the Banks of Yanoya in Mihintale and at Lunugamwehera in the South. The Ritigala holding ground will consist 1,000 hectares with a electrified ...
2008-10-11 - Mysore, India.
The 13 Dasara elephants were accorded a traditional farewell at a function organized at the Mysore palace premises here today October 11, 2008. Deputy Commissioner P Manivannan offered puja to all the 13 pachyderms which were fed jaggery, sugarcane and banana. The elephants still bore the colorful designs on their trunks boarded the trucks to begin their journey back to the jungles. Deputy Conservator of Forests (Wild Life) Yatish speaking on the occasion said that Balarama who has been carrying...
2008-10-10 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Wildlife Conservation Department has planned to form 'Elephant Protection Societies' in the North Western wildlife preservation zone for minimising the elephant-human conflict. Assistant Director in charge of the North Western Zone Manjula Amararatne which consist of five districts such as Mannar, Puttalam, Vavuniya, Anuradhapura and Kurunegala, said that villagers who live in areas where elephant invasions are rampant will be trained in strategical methodologies that could be practised in d...
2008-10-10 - Mosman, Australia.
This is an exceptional career opportunity for a committed and experienced Keeper to join our Life Science and Environmental Education Division within our Elephant Unit. Embracing all aspects of the Life Sciences division, this dynamic role exists during an exciting time for the Elephant Unit due to its redevelopment master plan and its focus on the regional Elephant Conservation Breeding program within the context of both free and protected contact. This position is located at Taronga Zoo, Mosma...
2008-10-09 - London, United Kingdom.
One Planet presents Animal Migration in a climate of Change, a series of programmes exploring the way that animal migration has been affected by environmental changes. In Part Three, The Elephant's Journey, Brett Westwood looks at African elephant migration. Mac, the African elephant, travels each year between Kruger National Park in South Africa and the private nature reserves which have been created to preserve animals and habitats there. Until relatively recently, reserves have been fenced, a...
2008-10-09 - Maine, United States.
The first human inhabitants are referred to as Paleo-Indians. They shared the land with woolly mammoths and likely hunted them for food. In 1959, when radiocarbon dating technology was in its infancy, a tusk more than four feet long was pulled out of the mud in Scarborough. After the initial excitement subsided it was concluded that the tusk probably belonged to "Old Bet" a traveling circus elephant that had been euthanized there in 1816. In the early 1990s the tusk was acquired by the Maine Sta...
2008-10-09 - Knoxville, United States. Jamie Satterfield
Thomas D. "Zoo Man" Huskey appeared in Criminal Court for a new sentencing hearing that Judge Richard Baumgartner said was necessary because of a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision rendering Tennessee's sentencing law as unconstitutional. What is at issue is a 22-year sentence Huskey received for the rape and kidnapping of a prostitute at the Knoxville Zoo, where he worked as an elephant keeper. That rape occurred before the bodies of four women were found in 1992 that Huskey admitted killing. He ...
2008-10-09 - Happisburgh, United Kingdom. NATASHA VICTOR
She thought she had stumbled upon a piece of fascinating flotsam to use in a sculpture. But when artist Belinda Opie had a chance meeting in her local with a fossil expert, she found out there was more to this humble-looking bit of beach debris than met the eye. For it is actually a 500,000-year-old mammoth tooth. And its sudden reappearance near the cliffs at Happisburgh after half a million years has raised fears that creeping coastal erosion is washing many of the UK's pre-historic fossils in...
2008-10-09 - Knoxville, United States. The Clausens
We recently visited the Shriner Circus where you were given the opportunity to ride an elephant. I graciously volunteered Mitch to take Tanner for a ride. As you can see from the photos, the elephant trainer was much to worried about his phone call than the 2 ton animal carrying small children! It was a highlight for Tanner, my little animal fanatic.
2008-10-09 - Kampala, Uganda. Edmund Kagire
Most rare and precious African fauna and flora species are on the verge of extinction, today more than in the past years following increased illegal trade in the past decade as global demand for these increases on daily basis. Data from the Lusaka Agreement reveals that over 20.000 elephants are killed in Africa annually and the ivory worth over $20m is exported to China, USA and Japan where it has a lucrative ready market. There is also a ready market for rhino horns, hippo teeth, primates like...
2008-10-09 - Tavira, Portugal. ELOISE WALTON
CIRCUSES ARE free to set up in Portugal without any inspections by municipal veterinarians before, during or after the shows, provided they have a licence from the local Câmara. The surprising situation was uncovered by The Resident following last week’s article about the collapse of an elephant at the Victor Hugo Cardinali circus in Tavira.
2008-10-09 - Montgomery, United States.
The Montgomery Zoo’s African Elephant Exhibit is in need of a Zookeeper I (Elephants)! Here is your chance to work with a TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED African Elephant Exhibit. Minimum Qualifications: High school diploma or G.E.D. and 1,000 hours or 6 months of professional experience working with elephants within the last five years, or an equivalent combination of education and experience. Preference will be given to those applicants who have obtained their experience in a zoo or circus set...
2008-10-08 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Baby elephants follow a keeper enroute to their watering place at a wildlife trust in Kenyan capital Nairobi Oct. 2, 2008. Visitors are allowed only about an hour each day at the trust, an elephant orphanage founded in the 1970s to take in baby elephants orphaned by ivory poachers.
2008-10-08 - Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Jenni Marsh
A BABY elephant and a sheep named Albert may not appear to have much in common, but at the Shamwari Game Reserve these two animals have become the best of pals. Eight-month-old orphan Themba, whose name means “hope†in Xhosa, struck up a friendship with wooly Albert after arriving at the reserve‘s animal hospital when he was just six months old. Thembas mum had fallen off a cliff and died at the Sanbona Wildlife Reserve in the Western Cape, where both elephants lived. Shamwaris...
2008-10-08 - Washington, United States. Ken Banks
According to Fauna & Flora International (FFI, "In Kenya's Ol Pejeta Conservancy, FFI and its local partners have fitted elephants with radio collars that transmit their location in 'real time.' This technology is not only useful to researchers who are able to track the elephants with far greater precision, but can also be used on problem animals -- elephants that habitually break fences, for example. The collars can be remotely programmed to send SMS messages at user-defined intervals or when a...
2008-10-08 - Salt Lake City, United States.
The keeper is responsible for the daily care of the assigned animals, observation and enrichment, training, as well as assisting in veterinary practices, educational presentations, public relations and support aspects of the Zoo's operations. Also required to be trained and work in other animal areas of the Zoo as needed which may include birds, other mammals, reptiles and invertebrates.
2008-10-07 - Caplen, United States.
A homeowner whose beachfront property in Texas was destroyed during Hurricane Ike has found a football-size fossil tooth in the debris. Dorothy Sisk and her colleague, Lamar University paleontologist Jim Westgate, visited her Bolivar Peninsula home after Ike hit. Together they found something unusual in Sisk's front yard: a 6-pound fossil tooth. Westgate believes the fossil is from a Columbian mammoth common in North America until around 10,000 years ago. The tooth, which looks like a series of ...
2008-10-06 - Dallas, United States.
If you're following the trials and tribulations of Jenny, the Dallas Zoo's last elephant, or the trials and tribulations of those who care about her future, we may have found the book for you. Diane Hammond, onetime press secretary to the killer whale who starred in Free Willy, has written a book about an Asian elephant. The book, Hannah's Dream, seems to revolve around the struggle, both political and personal, of transferring an elephant from a zoo to a sanctuary.
2008-10-06 - Minneriya, Sri Lanka.
According to Sri Lanka's wildlife department, 193 elephants died in 2007 and 171 died in 2006. Most of them were either shot, poisoned or electrocuted. The population has now shrunk to 4,500 from 12,000 a century ago. "You can't completely stop the human against elephant conflict," said Jayawardene, who worked for 30 years at the government's wildlife department. "But, with education and money coming into local hands through elephant safaris, we can minimise the damage. Locals will treat the ele...
2008-10-06 - Paris, France.
Yesterday, I had a slice of Pollux for dinner. Pollux and his brother Castor are two elephants, which have been killed. It was tough, coarse, and oily, and I do not recommend English families to eat elephant as long as they can get beef or mutton. Castor and Pollux's trunks sold for 45fr. a lb.; the other parts of the interesting twins fetched about 10fr. a lb.
2008-10-06 - Jaigaon, India.
Their tin hut surrounded by marauding elephants on three sides, a 65-year-old woman dug a tunnel with the help of her two grandsons to escape through the rear this morning. Around 2am, Maneshwari Burman was awakened by trumpeting in her kitchen, a few yards from where she slept with Pradip, 14, and Arjun, 10. “We knew that to talk would be to die and so looked at each other. Along with us was Bindu, a neighbour who had come to sleep at my home last night,†said Maneshwari. The family...
2008-10-06 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Despite the conflict between the two species Sri Lankans have managed to rescue the lives of five wild elephants fallen into agriculture wells in Kekirawa of the North Central Province during the last 3 days. According to Wildlife Department, during a rescue operation that took place on October 3rd to remove two elephant calves and a female elephant, an onlooker was attacked by the female elephant and later succumbed to his injuries. However, another female elephant died before being rescued on ...
2008-10-05 - Barcelona, Spain.
More than 8,000 of the world’s leading decision makers in sustainable development: from governments, NGOs, business, the UN and academia. Together in one place for 10 days: to debate, share, network, learn, commit, vote and decide. The objective: ideas, action and solutions for a diverse and sustainable world. 1’500 participants in the World Conservation Congress will build their skills for conservation action by participating in one of 50 (4-8 hours) practical and experiential workshops. Ma...
2008-10-05 - , Sri Lanka. Malaka Rodrigo
Among the many elephant deaths we hear of, this was particularly shocking. Not only because it was a majestic tusker being monitored through a satellite collar, but also because it was killed inside a national park. Ravana died on August 25 in a muddy water hole inside Lunugamvehera National Park, from infected gunshot wounds. The post-mortem revealed that the jumbo– named after the powerful king of ancient Sri Lanka – was starving at the time of death - the wound on its cheek preventing it ...
2008-10-05 - Siliguri, India.
An elephant was killed by a goods train near Rajabhat Khawo area of the Bauxa Tiger Reserve Forest of Cooch Bihar District of West-Bengal on early Sunday morning. According to the forest officials, while crossing the railway track, the elephant collided with the speeding train. The animal was crossing the forest from 21, basti area of the forestland to the other part of the forest. It died soon after colliding with the train. As a result of the accident, two coaches of the train were also derail...
2008-10-05 - Alipurduar, India.
An elephant’s violent death on tracks yesterday has proved the railways are not following the speed rules they are supposed to, the state’s chief wildlife warden said today. “We had discussed the problem at a seminar in Calcutta last month in the presence of Project Elephant representatives. But yesterday’s incident proves the railways are not abiding by the speed rules. I will inform Project Elephant about the incident,†said S.S. Bist. A.P. Singh, deputy field ...
2008-10-05 - Bangalore, India.
After a long and tedious hunt, Venkat, one of Karnataka’s ‘most wanted’ poachers, was arrested on Saturday morning while selling tiger nai ls at Taraka village near Nagarahole National Park. According to Sunil Panwar, assistant conservator of forests of Nagarahole National Park, Venkat was involved in various poaching and smuggling activities including ivory theft cases.
2008-10-03 - Kissimee, Orlando, Florida, United States.
October 3-7 at Radisson Worldgate in Kissimee Florida. An official notice has not been sent out yet, but this is the probable date and location. Deadline for Abstracts has been moved to August 1
2008-10-03 - Dallas, United States. JOANNA CATTANACH
The Dallas Zoo broke its attendance record this past year, welcoming 670,084 visitors in the 2007-08 fiscal year, which ended Tuesday. That's nearly 24,000 more visitors than the previous record of 646,169 set in 1979. It was big year in other ways, too. The zoo lost several prominent old friends and became the center of a national elephant debate. Year of loss: Boris the lion, KeKe the elephant, Hercules the gorilla and Jenny, the world's oldest captive gorilla, all died in the past year. Anima...
2008-10-03 - Mysore, India.
The cynosure of all eyes, the Naada Habba (State Festival) or People's Dasara festival is incomplete without the presence of 12 elephants. And what is more, each one of the elephants has a characteristic feature that is remarkable and evokes admiration. Twelve elephants come to Mysore annually from the Jungle Camps to acclimatise themselves to the ambience of the concrete jungle and lend sheen to the Dasara festivities. Their presence in the famous Mysore Palace premises would be another attract...
2008-10-01 - Doha, Qatar. Peter Townson
DOHA Zoo was bustling with visitors yesterday as many of the citys residents opted to spend the first day of their Eid holiday looking at the various animals and birds homed there. Although usually reserved for ladies only, this Tuesday was kept open for bachelors, many of whose companies had arranged for them to be transported to the zoo. The queue in the car park was an indication of the large numbers of visitors, with a huge variety of nationalities and ages gathered at the park’s entrance.
2008-10-01 - Luangwa, Zambia.
It's not everyday that you see a wild elephant standing next to you at the reception of a hotel. But in the Mfuwe Lodge in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia, the sight of one or even ten elephants strolling around the lobby is a regular occurrence. Unwittingly built on the elephant's traditional path in 1998, the Mfuwe Lodge stands directly en-route to this elephant herd's favourite food - wild mangoes. Andy Hogg, 44, Director at the Bushcamp Company that runs the Mfuwe Lodge, has lived ...
2008-10-01 - Ndola, Zambia. Nebert Mulenga
FROM what started as a mere campaign to scare away elephants from crop fields, chilli growing has now become a viable commercial farming activity for several Mfuwe residents in Eastern Province. Peasant farmer Boniface Mbao, 63, first planted the hot spice crop in 2006. By the end of the last season, he had managed to raise enough to buy iron sheets, household goods, and even built a standard house on his farm. "I have bought a big radio cassette, 10 iron sheets, and even this house I have built...
2008-09-30 - Paris, France.
At least 750 elephants are killed every year at the Zakouma National Park, in Chad, President of Association for the Protection and Preserva tion of Fauna and Flora (APROCOFF), Hamdan Annadif, disclosed here. "In 2004, Zakouma Park had 4,351 elephants; now there are only 1,000 left. On average, 750 elephants are savagely killed every year in the park. There are more carcasses of elephants than the living species," he told NAN. Annadif said that since 2002, the number of elephants in the park had...
2008-09-30 - Knysna, South Africa.
Although SANParks believes there is 'no reliable evidence' that more than one elephant is living in the indigenous Knysna forests, it has begun a DNA study of dung to determine the size of the herd.
2008-09-30 - Raipur, India.
About 850 residents of a Chhattisgarh village have not slept for the past one week as a group of 14 wild tuskers, having a record of killing people, have settled in the village and destroyed standing paddy crops. ‘About 850 persons of Raigarh districts Bhaisgarhi village have been spending sleepless nights since last Tuesday Sep 23 as a group of 14 wild elephants are roaming in the area,’ officials at the forest department here told IANS. They said the tuskers have sneaked into the ...
2008-09-30 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankas Ministry of Public Recreation and Sports has allocated 80 million rupees to upgrade the Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala, about 90 km north of the capital Colombo, the government said. In a measure to attract more tourists to the world famous elephant sanctuary the Ministry has allocated funds build a ‘open zoo’ in an eco-friendly environment. The Ministry plans to lay an internal road network, erect a parapet wall around the zoo, construct an overhead bridge and build a w...
2008-09-30 - Udhagamandalam, India.
A 52-year old man was trampled to death by a herd of elephants, including one calf, at Manjakombai near Coonoor in Nilgiris district. According to forest department sources, four persons, who were returning home after their work last night, were chased by a group of five wild elephants. Though three of them managed to escape, one Selvaraj was trampled by the elephants to death, they said. Meanwhile, the same herd of elephants waylaid a van at the nearby Thalakombai this morning. As the four occu...
2008-09-29 - San Andreas, United States. Mike Taylor
Preliminary results from a necropsy performed Sept. 21 indicate that 71, a poster elephant for the Performing Animal Welfare Society, died from pancreatitis. The pachyderm had lived at two PAWS facilities since 1986 and suffered from frequent bouts with colic. 71 died Sept. 19 at the ARK 2000 sanctuary in San Andreas. “Colic is fairly common in African elephants,†PAWS co-director Ed Stewart said. He said from her first days with he and co-director Pat Derby, 71 was battling one illn...
2008-09-29 - Bowmanville, Canada.
The Bowmanville Zoo is seeking a candidate to fill an elephant manager position in the Elephant Department. Individuals must have extensive knowledge in elephant training and husbandry. Duties include, but are not limited to, cleaning animal enclosures, preparing diets, performing daily animal presentations, presenting on site and off site programs, training husbandry and show behaviors, and providing enrichment for the collection. Candidates must be capable of managing both onsite activities as...
2008-09-28 - Gainesville , United States. Siegal-Willott J, Isaza R, Johnson R, Blaik M., University of Florida
Eleven juvenile Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) were evaluated radiographically to determine the relative times of growth plate closure and phalangeal ossification in the bones of the distal forelimb. Specifically, the first, second, and third phalanges of the third digit (D3) were evaluated, as well as the third phalanx of digits 1, 2, 4, and 5. All elephants were healthy at the time of examination. A retrospective evaluation of radiographs from six of the 11 juvenile elephants was also compl...
2008-09-28 - Karachi, Pakistan. SYED INTIKHAB ALI
Competent authorities in the CDGK have approved the purchasing of two Elephants in two to three months time for Karachi Zoo and Safari park as tender has been given to an international firm on lowest bid, The Nation has learnt on Saturday. Sources in the Community Development Department (CDD) said that city nazim Mustafa Kamal and DCO Karachi Javed Hanif had approved the summary for purchasing two elephants last month. It may be mentioned here that since the death of Anarkali (a female elephant ...
2008-09-27 - Bangalore , India. Nirmala Ravindran
In a study that revealed alarming statistics, it has been discovered that one in four temple elephants in south India suffered from tuberculosis. The study was spread across the four southern states and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and covered 387 captive elephants and looked at over 45 parameters. The recently-concluded study was led by principal investigator Jacob Cheeran, an expert on elephant studies and commissioned by Asian Nature and Conservation Foundation. It is understood that lack ...
2008-09-27 - El Paso, United States.
Festival is the word – as the El Paso Zoo highlights our city’s favorite pachyderms Savannah and Juno in a celebration of elephants worldwide. You’ll have BIG fun while you support conservation of the world’s largest land mammal. You’ll touch neat bio-facts from elephants, kids can play elephant-themed games, or buy a ticket for the opportunity to actually walk into the elephant exhibit area and hide produce to feed Conservation Ambassadors; Savannah and Juno, the El Paso Zoo’s Asian...
2008-09-26 - Maputo, Mozambique.
An unspecified number of elephants which escaped from South Africa's Kruger Park are creating panic and destroying crops in Mozambique's poor districts of Moamba and Magude, reported the daily Noticias on Friday. The paper said on its online edition that the elephants were invading the local farmers' gardens, destroying winter crops. Xavier Mendonca, Moamba district director for economic activities, was quoted by the paper as saying officers from the wildlife and forestry services had been instr...
2008-09-26 - Calderdale, United Kingdom. Joe Shute
HOW many elephants can you get in a Calderdale flat? Mum-of-three Kathy Dawson has managed to squeeze more than 1,600 into her home. The 61-year-old of Oldham Road, Ripponden, has been collecting "all things elephant" for 21 years after first buying a wooden model from a Gambian market stall. Now with every corner of her home occupied by elephant models, vases, clocks, soft toys, candlestick holders and even a watering can, she certainly got more than she bargained for.
2008-09-26 - SIRAHA, Nepal.
Two persons died when wild elephants attacked villages in Siraha district for the past few days. According to the Area Police Office Dhangadi, Rima Bishwakarma, 12, of Jamdaha VDC-6, died Friday morning, and Padam Tamang, 27, of Bishnupurkatti VDC-4, died Thursday night. Tamang was attacked by wild elephant last night while he had gone to irrigate his paddy field. Six persons have been killed and around 5o families have been displaced for three weeks after wild elephants went berserk in the dist...
2008-09-26 - Mexico City, Mexico.
Mexico has seized 12 animals from a circus a day after one of its elephants wandered onto a highway and was struck and killed by a bus. Mexico's Environmental Protection office said the two Asian elephants and 10 Siberian tigers were not properly contained and were at risk of escaping. The office said Wednesday in a statement that inspectors found the elephants tied to the tire of a trailer. Doors on several of the trailers also lacked proper locks. On Tuesday, a 5-ton elephant named Indr...
2008-09-26 - Yangon, Myanmar.
Wildlife keepers in Myanmar have warned against tendency of move of sanctuary of wild elephants from deep mountain range in western Rakhine state to agricultural field as elephant feed is running short there this year, the local Biweekly Eleven News reported Friday. Such wild elephants are being found shifting from the May Yu mountain range bordering Bangladesh to agricultural farms with crop plantations of local farmers and destroying the plantations for the sake of feed, the report said, calli...
2008-09-26 - Indianapolis Prize, United States. John Stehr
Hes taken on an incredible job, a commitment to save a species. That commitment to elephants has landed Iain Douglas-Hamilton as a nominee for the Indianapolis Prize. "I think I always wanted to fly," Douglas-Hamilton said. "I wanted to see how far the elephants went and from the air it's just a revelation." No one has revealed to the world more about African Elephants than Douglas-Hamilton. He was the first to put collars on key members of herds to track their movement and habits.
2008-09-26 - Martinsville, United States. MICKEY POWELL
The Virginia Museum of Natural History’s newest temporary exhibit helps visitors learn about large elephant-like animals that roamed North America during the Ice Age. Tusks! Ice Age Mammoths and Mastodons” will open Saturday. The exhibit features 80 fossil specimens, artifacts and replicas of extinct animals. Most of the specimens are real, but do not feel cheated that a few are not. “The casts were made so accurately that they can be used for scientific research,” said Ryan Barber, the ...
2008-09-25 - Guwahati, India.
The carcass of a male elephant calf was found floating in a water tank inside Narengi army cantonment here this morning. The calf, aged between two and two-and-a-half years, seems to have been part of a herd which strayed into the army cantonment from the adjoining Amchang wildlife sanctuary last night. “Army personnel and residents around the cantonment told us that they had seen a herd of about 14 elephants moving in the area for the past two days,†a police officer said.
2008-09-25 - Temerloh, Indonesia. B.Suresh Ram
The elephant management unit of the Wildlife and National Parks Department is facing a problem of mammoth proportions. There is a shortage of tame decoy elephants to help in the transfer of wild elephants to wildlife preserves. The unit only has three tame elephants -- Loky Mala, Myan Thon Pyan and Mek Bunga. Unit chief Nasharuddin Othman said it would be difficult to move wild elephants without the help of decoy elephants.
2008-09-24 - Mexico City, Mexico.
A five-ton elephant escaped from Gran Circo Union and wandered onto a busy highway, where it was hit by a bus. Both the driver and pachyderm were killed early Tuesday. Bus driver Tomas Lopez, 49, was killed and at least four passengers were hospitalized after the pre-dawn collision in Ecatepec, just north of Mexico City. State police spokesman Juan Sanchez said the elephant escaped from its cage at the Circo Union, but he declined to give any other details. He said officials were investigating. ...
2008-09-24 - Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
The Indonesian chapter of WWF (World Wildlife Fund) is asking Indonesian authorities to investigate the death of two Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) in Southeast Aceh district, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) province, a spokesman said. "This is important. To prevent a negative interpretation of what happened, the authorities should investigate the death of the two Sumatran elephants so that the cause of their death is clearly established," WWF Indonesia Deputy Team Leader Dede Su...
2008-09-24 - Omaha, United States. TIM JOHNSON
Henry Doorly Zoo's director, Dr. Lee Simmons envisions an arctic environment, elephant center and other specialized areas, he told chamber members at a luncheon Tuesday at the Mid-America Center. "Right now, we've got room for three adult and a bull stall," he said. "But once a year, the bull goes into lust; and when a bull goes into lust, nobody wants to be around it, except a female elephant," he said. "Our plan right now, we would be able to hold 10, 12, 14 elephants. We would become a player...
2008-09-24 - Dudhwa, India. Kamna Mathur
Not many may know that Dudhwa National Park holds a unique position for according pension and other emoluments to its elephants for rendering service to tourists and patrolling. These elephants belong to the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department at the Dudhwa National Park located in Lakhimpuri Kheri region of the State. And, after retirement from their official duties, these jumbos avail free medical treatment, pension and an attendant.
2008-09-24 - San Jose, United States. Lisa M. Krieger
After three years of undergoing scientific scrutiny at the University of California-Berkeley, the juvenile mammoth fossil nicknamed "Lupe,'' found near San Jose's Guadalupe River, is returning to San Jose. It will be the centerpiece of a new permanent display at the Children's Discovery Museum, officials told the Mercury News on Wednesday.
2008-09-23 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation
Constructive measures have been put in place to solve the human - elephant conflict. Minister of natural resources and environment Pathali Champika Ranawaka quoting a recent survey said that the number of elephants living in Sri Lanka has considerably increased. According to a detail survey it is reported that there were 673 elephants in 1993. But it has increased four times more than its original figure as of this date. There are more than 2420 elephants found in Mahaweli zone. But unfortunatel...
2008-09-23 - Yangoon, Myanmar.
Myanmar [Burma] has taken measures for wildlife conservation by restricting the catching of elephant in the country's Bago Yoma mountain range where most of the animal take sanctuary, the local Weekly Eleven journal reported Tuesday. In order to prevent elephant from extinction in the country, the Myanmar forestry authorities allowed catching of the wild elephants in the mountain range's Hlegu area only once in three years, prescribing the ratio of the elephants caught to be handed over to the a...
2008-09-23 - Kansas City, United States. Max Evans
A coalition of Zoos, including the Kansas City Zoo, received high honors last week at the 84th Annual Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Conference in Milwaukee for their work in elephant conservation. The AZA’s Significant Achievement Award for International Conservation was given to the zoos for their work as part of the Tarangire Elephant Project. The project is led by the Wildlife Conservation Society with support from a cadre of Zoos including the Kansas City Zoo, which provides...
2008-09-23 - San Andreas, United States. Jennifer K. Morita
A 26-year-old African elephant at the Performing Animal Welfare Society's San Andreas sanctuary died from chronic pancreatitis, according to preliminary necropsy results. Pathologists from the University of California at Davis laboratory in San Bernardino told PAWS officials that the female elephant, who died Friday, had an inflamed pancreas that was likely a result of early medical problems. The elephant was named "71" for the tag number she was assigned when captured as a baby in Africa.
2008-09-23 - Dhodhana, Nepal.
Dev Narayan Chaudhary, 42, of Dhodhana VDC-8, Lahan succumbed to injuries he suffered in an attack by a wild elephant Sunday night. Reports quoted locals as saying that the wild elephant attacked him at around 7 pm while he was in his cowshed. He was immediately rushed to hospital where he died while undergoing treatment. People in VDC's close to the jungle in Siraha and Saptari districts live in constant terror of attacks by wild animals. In the past three weeks wild elephants alone have claime...
2008-09-22 - THRISSUR, India.
A Programme to give practical training to mahouts and issue licence to the trained mahouts is under the consideration of the Kerala Elephant owners Federation, said Federation president K B Ganeshkumar, MLA. Filmstar Jayaram inaugurated the meet which commenced with a gajapooja. At the function, the Gajamithra Puraskaram and Nitish Memorial Endowment of Rs 5,001 was presented to Guruvayur Devaswom mahout P Radhakr i shnan. the ‘Palakapya puraskaram’ instituted by the Federation for ...
2008-09-21 - Akkaraipattu, Sri Lanka. Rathindra Kuruwita
Wild elephants killed two people in the Damana Police area yesterday. According to Damana Police, this is the second instance where humans have been attacked by elephants in the area recently. “The elephants have attacked and killed two individuals in the early hours, in a place called Rahman town and the bodies have been sent to Akkaraipattu for magisterial inquiries,†a senior Police officer there said adding that the attacks on humans by elephants have risen in the area dramatical...
2008-09-21 - copenhagen, Denmark.
This might seem odd, but elephants are being used to help with the gardening at a nature reserve in Denmark. Apparently they're great at pulling out unwanted trees and bushes, without leaving big holes. It's part of an experiment to see if the animals could work as a more environmentally-friendly alternative to machinery like tractors and diggers. If it's a success, elephants will be called in help to maintain the Danish countryside for three months each year.
2008-09-21 - Pittsburgh, United States. Kellie B. Gormly
Guests at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium on Sunday can help zookeepers pamper and honor the zoo's eight elephants, especially the two baby females born in July, in a party just for the pachyderms. Macy's Elephant Day, an event in its eighth year, brings a special excitement this year, because with the two new calves -- Angeline and Zuri -- it's like a belated birthday party, with an added cuteness factor, zoo officials say. Guests will watch the keepers feed a special carrot or banana nut cak...
2008-09-21 - San Andreas, United States. Jennifer Morita
A 26-year-old African elephant that once had been slated to be sold to a circus died Friday at the Performing Animal Welfare Society's sanctuary in San Andreas. Named 71 for the tag number she was assigned when captured as a baby, the elephant was shipped to the United States where she was purchased by a Florida man and later taken in by PAWS founders Pat Derby and Ed Stewart. When she arrived at PAWS in 1986, 71 was malnourished and chronically sick. Handlers had to sleep with her and bottle fe...
2008-09-21 - Houston, United States.
In Houston, residents are having a hard time removing debris from their yards, after Hurricane Ike. So, some animals from the Houston Zoo are giving them a hand...a trunk, rather. The 2,600 pound elephant, named ‘Tucker,’ is moving tree limbs. The three-year-old elephant can lift four times its body weight. Zookeepers say it’s good exercise for Tucker.
2008-09-20 - Mahaweli, Sri Lanka. Kelum Bandara
Despite the worsening of human-elephant conflict which has claimed the lives of both species, the elephant population has drastically increased from 673 in 1993 to 2423 this year in the Mahaweli areas of the country. Environment and Natural Resources Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka made this observation yesterday while referring to a report of the census conducted covering the Mahaweli areas of Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa, Matale, Badulla and Ampara. Addressing a ceremony held to mark the launch ...
2008-09-20 - KOTA KINABALU, United States. Jaswinder Kaur
The death of a male Borneo Pygmy elephant near a jungle resort in the Kinabatangan district early this month has sparked an investigation by the Sabah Wildlife Department. The department is probing the cause of death of the elephant, estimated to be about two years old. Its carcass showed no visible injuries. The department's officer-in-charge in Kota Kinabatangan, Roland Nuin, received information about the dead elephant on Sept 2 and sent a team to the scene.
2008-09-20 - RANCHI, India.
Two people were trampled to death and one was injured as elephants entered a village in Jharkhand's Ramgarh district on Friday and went on the rampage, attacking people and damaging property, police said. A herd of elephants entered villages that come under the Kuju police station of Ramgargh, around 70 km from here, in the morning. They then went on the rampage in Ratwe village and trampled Khirodhar Mahto and Gulab Mahto to death. The elephants also wounded another villager, a police official ...
2008-09-19 - Nairobi, Kenya. Richard Leakey
I am incredulous that the Centre of International Forestry Research (CIFOR) would suggest bushmeat hunting be legalized, giving the local people the task of policing themselves. This position shows remarkable naïveté and totally fails to understand the realities on the ground. A hungry population is never going to practice conservation of food, especially where it can be had free from the forest.
2008-09-17 - Palakkad, United States.
The problems faced by elephants could be mitigated to a certain extent by imparting scientific training to the mahouts, said Deputy Speaker Jose Baby. He was speaking after inaugurating the five-day training camp organised by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) near the Pariyanampatta temple in Mangalamkunnu on Tuesday. The camp was being organised with the co-operation of the Departments of Forest, Animal Husbandry and elephant owners.
2008-09-17 - Eltham, New Zealand.
AN ELEPHANT Race on Bridge Street, Eltham, April 28, 1965, was held in aid of funds for the Eventide Home. The elephants were borrowed from the Coles Circus. This event took place for several years, starting first in 1965 through to about 1971, when the circus was in town. One of the jockeys is Fred Taylor, mayor of Eltham at the time, who the others are would be an interest to know. Paul Connell and his trustee camera was there to record the event. He and later, his wife Shelia, have left behin...
2008-09-17 - Vacaville, United States. Danny Bernardini
In a scene straight from the movies, Isa the elephant could be seen Monday morning helping set up poles under the big top in anticipation for the opening night of the Carson and Barnes Circus. He said the elephants can sense the tension in the big top and will stop before tearing the tarp, unlike someone on a tractor doing the same job.
2008-09-17 - Durban, South Africa. Woolley LA, Millspaugh JJ, Woods RJ, van Rensburg SJ, Mackey RL, Page B, Slotow R. University of KwaZulu-Natal
In predator-free large herbivore populations, where density-dependent feedbacks occur at the limit where forage resources can no longer support the population, environmental catastrophes may play a significant role in population regulation. The potential role of fire as a stochastic mass-mortality event limiting these populations is poorly understood, so too the behavioural and physiological responses of the affected animals to this type of large disturbance event. During September 2005, a wildf...
2008-09-16 - Antwerp Zoo, Belgium.
The 25th EAZA Annual Conference will be hosted by Antwerp Zoo, Belgium from 16 to 20 September 2008. The conference will take place at the Flanders Congress & Concert Centre in the heart of Antwerp, conveniently located in the Zoo and next to Antwerp Central Station. For the majority of the participants, the conference will officially start with an ice-breaker in the evening of Tuesday 16 September 2008. The TAG chairs and the EEP coordinators, however, will already have their first meetings ear...
2008-09-16 - Lampang, Thailand. PICHAYA SVASTI
At the Elephant Hospital in Lampang, 31-month-old Mo Cha, who stepped on a landmine in Burma and lost her front right leg two years ago, walks and plays in a pool of sand after being fitted with the world's first artificial leg for pachyderms. She lifts and curls her trunk as if to thank Dr Therdchai.
2008-09-16 - Yaounde, Cameroon. Tansa Musa
Elegant waitresses offer patrons a menu of mainly common game -- pangolin, antelope, bush pig, monkey, cane rat and viper -- at prices of 5,000-10,000 CFA francs a dish. But in a fridge outside, a Reuters reporter saw two arms of what appeared to be a gorilla or a chimpanzee, thick black fur and hands still attached -- together with a piece of what a restaurant employee said was elephant meat. "If you want to eat meat of big animals like chimpanzee, gorilla and even the elephant, you make a spec...
2008-09-15 - Mount Kenya, Kenya. Dan Vergano
The call came last week from Kenyan Wildlife Services. Mountain Bull had to die. The adult elephant living near Mount Kenya had absconded from his reserve home to pillage villagers' crops with a posse of other male tuskers. Outraged by the elephants eating their livelihood, a regular occurrence in the last two years, impoverished locals wanted the elephants tracked down and killed. "Hold on, hold on, we asked them, don't shoot that one," says biologist Iain Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants...
2008-09-15 - Montgomery, United States. John Shryock
The Montgomery Zoo says the calf born to Mary, an elephant who died last month at the zoo, has also died. The male African elephant calf died Sunday after officials said it became unresponsive and veterinary and animal care staff were unable to revive it. Marcia Woodard, Deputy Director of the Montgomery Zoo, tells WSFA 12 News she wasn't aware of a single case in North America where an elephant calf survived while being bottlefed, but that the zoo put great effort into the cause, taking care of...
2008-09-14 - KINABATANGAN, Indonesia.
There is much about the Bornean Elephant that is unknown, according to a conservationist in Sabah. “We do not yet understand their actual family structures and how group dynamics are,” said Nurzhafarina Othman, the conservation biologist at the Danau Girang Field Centre, who heads a new study which is the first on the social structure of the Bornean Elephant. Danau Girang is a field study centre located within the Kinabatangan. It is a collaborative project between the Sabah Wildlife Departm...
2008-09-14 - Tesso Nilo, Indonesia.
The government of Indonesia has declared its commitment to enlarging the most suitable block of forest for Sumatran elephants, expanding the vital Tesso Nilo National Park on Sumatra island to 86,000 hectares. "This is an important milestone toward securing a future for the Sumatran elephant and tiger," said Dr. Mubariq Ahmad, WWF-Indonesia's Chief Executive. “To ensure that the commitment is effectively implemented, we must redouble our efforts on the ground to eliminate poaching and ille...
2008-09-13 - Siraha, Nepal.
At least five people were killed when wild elephants turned rampage in Saptari and Siraha district on Saturday. 10-year old Nilam Kumari Ram, Bhukiyadevi Ram and Pritandevi Yadav were killed on the spot when three wild elephants from Chure forest attacked the villagers at Madhupatti in Saptari. Meanwhile, Bantu Ram who has been seriously injured is undergoing treatment at Lahan Hospital after the elephants pounced on him. They also destroyed 10 houses in the village. Similarly, Ramdev Sathi and ...
2008-09-13 - Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
Elephant attacks have been occurring with increasing frequency in Pantee Purba/Ligan , Sampiniet sub district, Aceh Jaya District, during the past one month, local sources said. "Since they entered this region last August, the herds of wild elephants have destroyed crops on hectares of farm land," Abdul Hakim, a local farmer, told ANTARA on Saturday. Some 13 Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) were currently in the outskirts of Ie Jeureungeh village and in a forest bordering the SP-V...
2008-09-12 - Mysore, India.
Dasara elephants housed in the premises of Palace are being given royal treatment. On the other hand, Palace elephants which are supposed to get similar treatment, are suffering. There are seven elephants under the charge of Palace Administration. Out of them, five are suffering from one disease or the other. The personnel who are supposed to take care of their health, are showing negligence. Elephant Raji has developed big tumours near both the eyes. Jamini has a tumour with infection on the ri...
2008-09-12 - Portland, United States. Katy Muldoon, The Oregonian
The votes are in, and the Oregon Zoo's new baby elephant is named Samudra, or Sam for short. The calf loves his baths, so the name, which means "lord of the ocean," is fitting. More than 17,000 people voted among five names, and Samudra took 35 percent. Hugo-Tu was second. The contenders: Amul: Hindi for priceless or of inestimable worth. Bao: Chinese for precious treasure. Duc (rhymes with hook): Vietnamese for good, moral, desire. Plus, the zoo notes, it makes up a fraction of Kevin Duc...
2008-09-12 - Warsaw, United States. Jennifer Peryam
Performing elephants, lions, tigers and horses will entertain those who attend Baron von Uhl's Wild Animal Circus in Warsaw next weekend. Elephant rides will be available for $5, and pony rides will be $4. The circus will feature two performing elephants it adopted from Africa, Tiny, 15, and Twiggy, 20. There will be photo opportunities with the basketball-playing elephant. Tom Liebling, who is an elephant trainer with the circus, has been with the circus for 50 years. The circus is based out of...
2008-09-12 - Colchester, United Kingdom.
THIS delightful snap shows best friends, Kito and Jambo, messing around at Colchester Zoo - and will provide happy memories for those who remember the young elephants before leaving East Anglia for warmer climes. The moment was captured by reader James Meadows, whose wildlife photos are often featured on the pages of the Star. Mr Meadows, 58, of Gloucester Road, Ipswich, took the snap during February half term when the country was enjoying slightly more favourable weather. The keen photographer ...
2008-09-12 - Milwaukee County Zoo, United States.
The 2008 AZA Annual Conference will be hosted by the Milwaukee County Zoo, WI, USA. For more information, please visit www.aza.org
2008-09-11 - Salt Lake City, United States. Lynn Arave
Misha, a 27-year-old African elephant, died at Hogle Zoo Tuesday afternoon after being euthanized because of declining health. For the last few weeks, Misha's physical health had been mysteriously deteriorating and early on, animal care staff was aware — through changes in her behavior — that she was not feeling well, according to Holly Braithwaite, Hogle Zoo spokeswoman.
2008-09-11 - Polpithigama, Sri Lanka. M. A. R. MANUKULASOORIYA
Nearly 1,000 villagers from Gomadiyagala in the Polpithigama police area launched an agitation campaign against Wildlife Officers on Tuesday after a 25-year-old man was killed by a wild elephant near the Hakwatuna oya reservoir in the Polpithigama Divisional Secretariat division. The Divisional Secretary promised that he would take every possible action on this matter. The villagers forcibly opened the gate of the Divisional Secretary's office and entered the premises and made a complaint regard...
2008-09-11 - Havelock islands, India. PATANJALI V. PARIMI
Rajan is unique. He flies in the waters of the Bay of Bengal with the ease of a pelican in the air. He may be a majestic giant on land, but in the water he seems to transform into a weightless creature specially designed to fly in the sea. If you ever imagined flying with an elephant in a surreal world, you sure can realise your dream with the help of a male tusker called Rajan in the Andaman Islands. For a country that has an estimated 25,000 wild elephants and 3,500 domesticated elephants, the...
2008-09-11 - Berkshire, United Kingdom. Giles Whittell
The late spring of 1941. A circus in Horley has two elephants for sale. Chief Supply Officer Captain F. Ellam, of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), is on the phone, trying to buy elephants. Capt Ellam agrees terms and the Ministry of Aircraft Production approves funds for what would be the world's first four-legged airfield tractors. The circus offers an Indian mahout to go with the elephants, and the ATA measures him up for a uniform of fine navy worsted. The plan falls through, but only becau...
2008-09-11 - Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
THE death of a Woody Cape farm worker who was “grabbed” through an electric fence and trampled to death by an elephant last week, has been described as a freak accident. Zimbabwean-born Vanhuvmnwe Chinangama was killed instantly on the farm Request, while walking alongside a re-enforced electric fence separating a herd of nine elephants at the Elephants of Eden sanctuary from the rest of the farm. The farm spokesperson Stanford Slabbert yesterday said the elephant had inexplicably grabbed Ch...
2008-09-11 - Hollywood, United States. Elisabeth Rappe
The bidding war is over, and Fox 2000 has emerged triumphant, clutching the rights to Sara Gruen's bestseller Water for Elephants, which they are promptly putting on the fast track. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Francis Lawrence is attached to direct, and Richard LaGravenese is adapting it for the big screen.
2008-09-11 - San Andreas, United States. MEGAN HOLLAND
A year into her new life roaming a California sanctuary with other elephants, Alaska's favorite expat shows every sign of enjoying it. She trumpets, knocks down trees and calls for her companions when they wander too far, say her new keepers. "She's the comedian of the crowd," said Pat Derby, president of the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary. "She's Ms. Personality." The facility, 50 miles southeast of Sacramento, offers Maggie three companions and 75 acres to roam. It's a stark contr...
2008-09-10 - San Diego, United States.
Deep in the bush of South Africa, Dr. Dean Hendrickson finally has his surgical routine down: Hoist up the elephant, make a 4-inch incision, make a couple snips, and suture the elephant back up. Hendrickson, the interim director of the CSU vet hospital, is the surgeon on a four-person team from Disney’s Animal Kingdom in San Diego that ventures into the reserves of South Africa to perform vasectomies male elephants.
2008-09-10 - THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India.
The first exhaustive study of captive elephants in southern India has found that 15.25 per cent of them suffer from tuberculosis. Principal investigator of the two-year-long study Jacob Cheeran said that the study was done on 387 captive elephants in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; 59 of the elephants had TB. "The study on the health of captive elephants with special attention on TB was conducted by the Bangalore-based NGO Asian Nature and Conservation Foundati...
2008-09-10 - Toledo, United States.
The Toledo Zoo and its Elephant Management Program has the ability to offer a unique opportunity to individuals that would like to make captive elephant management a career. The zoo has a structured internship program that encompasses many different opportunities throughout the zoo campus. A participant in the Elephant Keeper Internship Program would work directly with the zoo’s elephants and staff under the direction of the elephant manager. The intern will assist in the daily cleaning of the...
2008-09-09 - Mysore, India.
During the Dasara procession it is the ambari elephant that attracts a lot of attention. And, choosing the ambari elephant is no mean task. Shyam Sundar Vattam delves deep into historical records to trace the process of their selection. The world famous Mysore Dasara is synonymous with elephants. Dasara procession without elephants is unthinkable. It is, therefore, no wonder that these gentle giants which are brought from the neighbouring national parks for Dasara enjoy a protocol which is norma...
2008-09-09 - Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Wildlife for Sustainable Development (WSD) announced it is undertaking various activities to protect increasingly diminishing Ethiopian elephants and reverse the trend. A national elephant conservation program is launched to protect and increase the number of Ethiopian elephants whose number is diminishing from time to time, WSD Director General Dr Yirmed Demeke told WIC. The program envisages to care for the elephants by protecting them from poaching, disease prevention, habitat protection so a...
2008-09-09 - Windhoek, Namibia. Garth Owen-Smith, Co-director of IRDNC Namibia
OVER the past few weeks I have watched in amazement the escalating media frenzy, sensational headlines and misinformation over the Ministry of Environment and Tourism's issuing of trophy-hunting permits for six elephants to conservancies in Namibia's northwest. Having worked as an agricultural official in the then Kaokoveld (1968-70), I was in charge of the Endangered Wildlife Trust's field operations in Kaokoland and Damaraland (1982-1990), and since then been co-director with Dr Margaret Jacob...
2008-09-08 - Babille, Ethiopia.
It is with great sadness that I report the death of another great conservationist at work. Zahoor Kashmiri was darting elephants in Babille in Ethiopia where a little understood population of elephants was being studied. The work was a collaboration with Yirmed from Ethiopian Elephants blog. I spoke to Yirmed who told me that a well know aggressive single tusked bull attacked and killed my good friend who simply didn’t have a chance. For me this is one of the saddest days in the year. Some of...
2008-09-08 - New Delhi, India. Pressrelease, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India
Carving of ivory is a traditional cottage industry in South India. the spurt in prices of ivory has been mainly responsible for killing of elephants in India. It is alleged that poachers do not hesitate to shoot even young elephants down to 5 years of age, which carry tusks of about 2.5 kg. a piece only. This type of systematic and sustained poaching of tuskers appeared to affect even the genetic potential and sex ration of the species.
2008-09-07 - London, United Kingdom.
A camel never forgets The Ancient Greeks claimed that the camel "never forgets an injury". By the early 20th century, this had evolved into "women and elephants never forget an injury", before becoming simply "elephants never forget" in the 1930s. According to research by the Wildlife Conservation Society, this might be true for older females. During times of drought, a matriarch that has survived a previous dry spell is able to guide the herd to distant water sources.
2008-09-07 - Dublin, Ireland.
I am asked to recreate a John Hinde picture postcard of my late father, an elephant keeper in Dublin Zoo, which was taken in the late 1960s or early 1970s. I dress in the uniform and cap and get the elephant to salute with her trunk. For my dad it was Sarah, for me it is Yasmin. The result will be seen on TG4 in a few weeks’ time on a programme called Cartai Poist. It turns out to be an afternoon full of memories because, in my childhood, Dublin Zoo was virtually a second home.
2008-09-06 - Toronto, Canada. Anthony Reinhart, Eric Cole, Toronto Zoo
Sure as the sun rose each morning, Tequila the African elephant could be found lumbering about her enclosure, eager to fortify her imposing bulk with a bale of hay for breakfast. Such had been her routine since the summer of 1974, when the young orphan from Mozambique took up residence with the rest of the elephants at the newly opened Toronto Zoo. When the zoo's elephant keepers reported for work on Tuesday, they expected no different. But there was nothing routine about what they found in the ...
2008-09-05 - Kathmandu, Nepal.
Four people were killed in elephant rampage in southern Nepali districts, local newspaper The Kathmandu Post reported on Friday. In Dhanusa district, some 125 km south of the Nepali capital, six-year old Nisha Pokherel was killed on her way with her family at the Jalar river in the morning. Similarly Ram Ashis Mahatto, 65, was also killed by the wild elephant while 20-year-old Mira Pokherel was injured and is undergoing treatment at a local hospital. Wild elephants have increasingly been on the ...
2008-09-05 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Environment Ministry will soon formulate a national level action plan with new regulations with regard to tamed elephants to ensure their well-being, Environment Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said. The regulations will comply with international conditions as well, the Minister told a ceremony at the Kotte Raja Maha Viharaya on Thursday. The Minister opened the sacred relic exhibition at the conclusion of the temple’s 108th annual perahera.
2008-09-05 - Corbett Tiger Reserve, India.
The environment ministry has sought a report from the Uttarakhand government on increasing cases of elephant mortality at the famous Corbett Tiger Reserve in recent months. "There have been reports of higher cases of jumbo mortality from the region in the last few months when compared to the last few years. It is definitely a matter of concern though it would be too early to comment whether it is due to the negligence of the park's staff or due to some other reasons," A N Prasad, director of Pro...
2008-09-04 - Chester, United Kingdom.
Chester Zoo will be hosting an Elephant & Rhino evening on Thursday 4th September. Join us for an evening with a difference at Oakfield Manor followed by a personal Zoo tour with our keepers. Pre booking is essential, to make a booking please call our Events Office on 01244 650 209 or email events@chesterzoo.org
2008-09-04 - Kunming, China. Sun Yunlong
An Asian elephant who became addicted to drugs after eating a banana smeared with heroin is headed back to Kunming after a three-year detoxification program in China's southernmost Hainan Province. The 4-year-old male elephant, Xiguang, became addicted in March2005. He was among six elephants lured by animal smugglers along the Sino-Myanmar border. They used the bananas as bait for the animals, which were being brought into China's Dehong Autonomous Prefecture of Dai and Jingpo nationalities. Po...
2008-09-04 - Emmen, Netherlands. Martijn Fabrie
A male calf has been born this morning at 11.30 AM in Emmen Zoo. His mother is Mingalar Oo and his father is Radza (father to seven babies, grandfather of 2 babies in Japan). It's the first time in the zoo's history that a birth took place in the outside enclosure.
2008-09-03 - Dar es salaam, Tanzania. Guardian Reporter
By The speed at which the African elephant has been slaughtered is reported to have been rising alarmingly since an international ban on ivory trade took effect in 1989. The public outcry that resulted in the ban has strangely died off, with University of Washington conservation biologist Samuel Wasser contending that it is because public awareness on the plight of the giant mammal has also faded. Recent studies show that poaching, which is endemic in Africa, accounts for an 8 per cent annual de...
2008-09-03 - Dallas, United States.
The Dallas Zoo announced moments ago that it has received the largest gift in its 120-year history, a $5 million donation from the Harold Simmons Foundation. Zoo officials plan the use the funds to help build a new $40 million African Savanna exhibit that will house large animals from elephants to giraffes and zebras. Plans for the Savanna's elephant exhibit were recently fasttracked after the zoo decided to keep its lone remaining elephant, Jenny, in Dallas. Zoo officials hope to have a new 4-a...
2008-09-03 - Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Darren Tom
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo's three African elephants arrived safely yesterday at the Columbus Zoo, and they're adapting very well to their new surroundings. Elephants Moshi, Jo and Martika will be staying in Columbus during construction of the new African Elephant Crossing habitat at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. The elephants are scheduled to return to Cleveland before their expanded exhibit opens to the public in 2011. The elephants were transported to Columbus in a specially equipped trailer and a...
2008-09-03 - Toronto, Canada. Danielle Wong
The surprise death of a Toronto Zoo elephant yesterday offered a fresh challenge for veterinarian staff who have learned that elephants, like humans, mourn the death of their loved ones. When Thika found her mother, a 38-year-old African elephant named Tequila, dead early at the zoo’s outdoor elephant exhibit, she stayed beside the body for four hours. Thika even started digging at the ground and throwing dirt on her mother’s body, as if hoping to get any response at all. It wasn’t until T...
2008-09-02 - Mahavilachchiya, Sri Lanka. Senaka de Silva
Wild elephants are known to go on the rampage, but drunken elephants can be a handful or is it a mouthful as both villagers and wildlife officials in Mahavilachchiya came to experience. Wild Life officials said a roaming herd of wild elephants walked into a kasippu den after sniffing the aromatic smell of fruits used in distilling the brew and had more than a mouthful of the booze and in their drunken state ran amok destroying crops and houses in the village. The men at the illegal brewery showe...
2008-09-02 - Katima Mulilo , Namibia. Reagan Malumo
A mysterious disease believed to be anthrax is exerting a grim toll on Caprivi’s elephant herd, wiping out large numbers of these majestic wild animals particularly in the area of Nakabolelwa, about 90 kilometres east of Katima Mulilo. A village headman at Nakabolelwa told New Era that last month at least four elephants succumbed to the mysterious disease in that area. He said several other cases were also confirmed at a nearby settlement in Botswana and that it is suspected that the elep...
2008-09-02 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
At least two people and an elephant have died in the human-elephant conflict prevalent in SriLanka's rural north central and eastern areas, police said Tuesday. Police said that a 45-year-old man was killed as a result of being attacked by a wild elephant at Sigiriya, about 165 km from here in North Central Province. The ill-fated man was attacked at around 8 p.m. local time Monday while returning home. In the nearby Digampathaha area, another man was attacked by a wild elephant earlier on Monda...
2008-09-02 - Auvergne, France.
Researchers recently uncovered a fossilized skull of a steppe mammoth in the Auvergne region of France, shedding light on the evolution of such beasts. The find is notably rare because while a handful of mammoth skeletons have been discovered, the skull is rarely intact. Paleontologists Frederic Lacombat and Dick Mol report that the skull belongs to a male steppe mammoth (Mammuthus trogontherii) that stood about 12ft tall and lived about 400,000 years ago, during Middle Pleistocene times. The st...
2008-09-02 - Kolmarden, Sweden. Dan Koehl
After two years of intensive work the database now include 4000 elephants (including 380 breeding cows and 154 breeding bulls), 1732 dead elephants and 2268 living, from 1121 location facilities in 92 countries, ranging from year 802 until now.
2008-09-02 - Chiang Mai, Thailand. Antoinette van de Water
The end of the rainy season is coming near and after a couple of weeks of non-stop tree planting, Trees for Elephants 2008 has also accomplished her final goal! The idea to plant 100,000 trees for Thai elephants was born in august 2007. Yesterday, exactly one year later, the 100,000th tree has been planted. The planting of this tree was an unforgettable moment! Of course I wanted to experience this moment in the Elephant Nature Park, together with Douk Ngern, Sri Nuan and Faa Sai. We planted a p...
2008-09-01 - Chennai, India.
Forests minister N Selvaraj said on Sunday that the first installment of Rs 125 crore of a total of the Rs 256 crore was released for setting up night safaris in Vandalur zoo. The state government also plans to set up a zoo in Tiruchi, he added. At the Vandalur zoo, 60 deer can be seen during the safari, while for the jumbo rides, the services of two elephants from Pollachi will be used to thrill visitors. The jumbo rides would be offered between 9.30 am and 11.30 am, and 4 pm to 5.30 pm, except...
2008-09-01 - Kandy, Sri Lanka. S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen
In Sri Lanka nearly 120 elephants are killed by humans and in return about 65 people die after being attacked by elephants every year. The number of cases of elephants being killed or run over by trains could be reduced if the train staff take precautions by giving the elephants enough warning in advance when they spot the elephants close to the rail tracks, Managing Trustee of the Bio Diversity and Elephant Conservation Trust and leading expert on Asian elephants and former planter Jayantha Jay...
2008-09-01 - Windhoek, Namibia. Chis Haslam
Africas few remaining desert elephants are facing extinction after the Namibian government issued permits for six breeding bulls to shot by trophy hunters. The government claims the herds can sustain the slaughter but Johannes Haasbroek, operations director of Elephant-Human Relations Aid, says the issue of the $40,000 dollar permits to big game hunters will be catastrophic. Three of the licences have been issued in the south Kunene region, where Hassbroek says there are just three breeding bull...
2008-09-01 - Mysore, India.
Elephants play a major role in Dasara procession. The six elephants which are camping for the past few days in the premises of Mysore Palace are being taken for walking daily in the morning and evening in the path of 'Jumboo Savari' to enable them to get acquainted with the route. The elephants Balarama, Arjuna, Gajendra, Abhimanyu, Sarala, Vijaya in the first batch started their exercise a few days ago to get acquainted with the city environment, people and vehicular traffic. Balarama has been ...
2008-09-01 - New York, United States. Melody Ng, ©The Moodie Report
US. Leathergoods specialist Hunting World is introducing a new bag made from organic material to help save wild elephants in Borneo. Part of the proceeds from the sale of the Borneo Bag will go to support the Trust's campaign to unify fragmented forests of Borneo and to help connect important elephant migration routes. Hunting World wants to raise awareness of what is happening to these animals in Borneo and to help save them for future generations.
2008-09-01 - Laikipia, Kenya. KNA
An elderly man has been killed by a stray elephant in Laikipia North district. Laikipia OCS James Kithuka said Pipitano Ole Rosoyo, 70 was crossing the Mpala ranch when he was attacked by the rogue elephant on Sunday. Kithuka said the elderly man was trampled on before being thrown into a dam. It is suspected the elderly man chanced upon the elephant as it was drinking water from the dam. The body was taken to Nanyuki hospital district mortuary. Kithuka appealed to Wananchi in the three district...
2008-09-01 - Washington, United States. Joe DeCapua
An animal conservation group warns that Namibia's desert elephants face a severe blow because the government has issued permits to kill some breeding bulls. Permits to kill six of the bulls have been awarded for trophy hunting. The government says the elephant herds can handle the loss. Johannes Haasbroek is the operations director for the group Elephant-Human Relations Aid. From Swakopmund, Namibia, he spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter Joe De Capua about the permits to kill the br...
2008-08-31 - BISMARCK, United States.
Rare prehistoric artifacts are on display in North Dakota's state museum. The "Clovis" artifacts are unfinished tools that are about 13,000 years old. The people who made them hunted woolly mammoth and mastodon. They're the oldest artifacts in the State Historical Society's collection. The artifacts were donated by some western North Dakota residents who unearthed them in Golden Valley County. Some of them are now on exhibit in the Recent Acquisitions case at the North Dakota Heritage Center in ...
2008-08-31 - Nairobi, Kenya. Daniel Stiles
The "to be or not to be" question of selling ivory has been the subject of a heated debate for 20 years now. Kenya has been leading the charge in the debate with its resounding "Not to be" answer. Kenya banned the domestic use and sale of ivory and other wildlife products in 1978, and it was instrumental in promoting the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) ban on international ivory sales voted in 1989. Everyone remembers the huge bonfire of elephant tusks in the Nair...
2008-08-31 - Dac Lac, Vietnam. Thu Huong
To ethnic minority groups living in the central highland province of Dac Lac, a ring made of hair taken from an elephant’s tail is far more than an ordinary ornament. Because most people consider it to be an amulet that is expected to bring them luck in love, local couples often use elephant hair as a pawn in the game of love. Although no one has ever been able to prove the reliability of such a rumor, rings plaited with elephant hairs are now appearing in many souvenir shops. But the con...
2008-08-30 - Kiev, Ukraine.
The Kyiv zoo will celebrate the Elephant Day on August 30. According to the press-service of the Kyiv City State Administration, the holiday will begin at noon with presenting a “Summer Bouquet” to zoo’s elephant Boy. Specialists will tell interesting information about his life. Boy’s favorite delicacies – apples, oranges, carrots, and cabbage, will be hidden in his open-air cage. Those willing will be allowed to make photos with the elephant. Boy the elephant has been living in the Ky...
2008-08-30 - Washington, United States.
Almost 10 per cent of elephants have been killed in Congos troubled Virunga National Park by armed groups, soldiers, and poachers, allegedly driven by rising Chinese demand for ivory. Surveys carried out in the 1960s found 2,889 elephants in the park. By 2006 that number had dropped to 400. Just two years later, its estimated there are as few as half that number. According to a report in National Geographic News, the announcement raises fears that elephants could disappear forever from Africas o...
2008-08-30 - Chiang Mai, Thailand. Hilary Smith
After an eye-opening, palette-pleasing trip through Vietnam, three couples — Barry and Pat Brown of Mendon, Jim Kurtz and Jan Kellner of Webster and Paul and Sue Wilkens of Ontario — journeyed through Chiang Mai, Thailand, to reach a pachyderm sanctuary known simply as the Elephant Nature Park. It is home to about 30 elephants, all of whom were rescued from circuses or logging camps or injured by poachers, land mines, trucks or other human causes. Created through the efforts of one Thai woma...
2008-08-30 - Puttlalam, Sri Lanka. Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe
Puttlalam district farmers who have been severely affected by rampaging elephants say they may even have to give up farming, in the face of little or no state compensation or measures to minimise the human-elephant conflict. “Elephants have destroyed our crops that cost us many months of hard labour. This is in addition to being in debt over the capital to plant these crops,” lamented T. D. Ranbanda a farmer from the village of Mahauswewa in Anamaduwa.
2008-08-30 - Portland, United States.
The newest addition to the Oregon Zoo is ready to meet his adoring fans. The public will be able to see the 286-pound elephant calf born last weekend to Asian elephant Rose-Tu for the first time on Saturday. Zookeepers have been working to "baby proof" the elephant exhibit at the Oregon Zoo for the past few days. Meanwhile, the calf has been exploring his surroundings, picking up sticks and even playing in the bath with his mother. The baby has also been lying down Zoo officials say the calf con...
2008-08-30 - Nairobi, Kenya.
For close to a decade now, Kenya has been in the forefront in crusading against the push by a few countries seeking to have a worldwide ban on trade in ivory lifted. As a country, Kenya has had a chilling experience with poaching which justifies this trepidation. In 1973, our elephant population stood at 135,000. The next decade saw wanton poaching almost wipe out the entire elephant population. By the time an international ban on the trade in ivory was in place and the jumbos brought under the ...
2008-08-29 - , United States.
Many scientists believe that the ancient pachyderms became extinct about 10,000 years ago because of climactic changes that drastically reduced their food sources. Although only about a hundred mammoth specimens have been found throughout the world over the years, it is believed that as many as ten million mammoths may be buried in permanently frozen Russian soil. Previously, scientists believed that woolly mammoths were one large homogeneous group, but the mitochondrial DNA extracted from froze...
2008-08-29 - Denver, United States. Kathleen St. John
Sometimes, when you find yourself at a particularly boisterous bar, it seems like you're surrounded by wild animals. "For these guys, particularly Mimi and Dolly, the elephants, it's kind of business as usual for them," says Bowie. "They know it's evening, so that's different, but their keepers are still around. I think they think it's weird, but it's fine." The elephants probably remember plenty of past Brews — the annual beer bust is in its 11th year. With Mimi and Dolly looking on, visitors...
2008-08-29 - Kampala, Kenya. Patson Baraire
Over 200 families from Kinyabutongo and Kameme villages in Kihiihi Sub-county, Kanungu District have fled their homes and camped at the sub-county headquarters after elephants from the Queen Elizabeth National Park invaded their area. Last weekend, the elephants killed two people and injured several others. The Kihiihi LC3 chairperson, Mr Nelson Natukunda, named the victims as Ms Beatrice Musabyimaana, 39, and her two-year-old son Brian Abemaana, who were killed as she tended to her garden.
2008-08-29 - Bamako, Mali.
Implementers of an international project to help endangered elephants in Mali want to prove that by doing so, they can also help local communities adapt to climate change in the Sahel. The Malian government lists elephants in Gourma in the country's far desert north as highly endangered. A drought in the 1970’s killed most of the country's elephants leading the population to dwindle from several thousand down to 350. Often seen near Lake Banzena, about 400 kilometres south of Gao, these elepha...
2008-08-29 - Negara, Malaysia.
ZOO Negara received a RM10,000 contribution collected from 1 Utama’s Go Green campaigns “Feed-The Fish” and “Recycle-A-Bottle”. The amount will go towards renewing the adoption of Teriang, a 28-year-old Malaysian elephant for the third consecutive year. The cheque was handed over by 1 Utama Shopping Centre advertising and promotion manager Patrick So and Wespack Waste Management business development director Sherwyn Chin to Zoo Negara chairman Datuk Ismail Hutson and director Dr Mohama...
2008-08-28 - Karachi, Pakistan. Jan Khaskheli
Families which went to the local Zoo, in a bid to catch a glimpse of the new elephant had to leave without having their wish come true. Though some inquired from the gardeners about the arrival of the new elephant, the only response they got was “the officers may know better when the elephant will arrive.†A gardener busy pruning bushes told The News that when he joined the Karachi Zoo 35 years ago there were two elephants. Anarkali was the only animal that attracted children as it p...
2008-08-28 - Melbourne, Australia.
No baby elephant has ever been born in Australia - but now three elephants are pregnant at zoos in Sydney and Melbourne. Zoo authorities have announced a third elephant, Pontipp, is in the maternity wing, as a result of artificial insemination (AI) at Sydney's Taronga Zoo. She joins Thong Dee, impregnated naturally by mate Gong at Taronga last year and Dokkoon which was impregnated by artificial insemination at Melbourne Zoo also last year. The two AI infants were sired by Melbourne's Bong Su - ...
2008-08-28 - Geneva, Switzerland. Richard Williams
Sumatra's endangered elephants and tigers should get a boost from an Indonesian government move to expand one of their last havens, a four-year-old national park on the island, conservation body WWF said on Thursday. But WWF warned that increased efforts would be vital to ensure that poaching and other illegal activities -- like unsanctioned logging and settlement -- did not continue in the park, Tesso Nilo in Sumatra's Riau Province. "This is an important milestone towards securing a future for...
2008-08-28 - THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India. Ashraf Padanna
Kerala’s old captive elephants can now retire and spend their twilight years in dignity at their new home outside the state capital here. The Elephant Rehabilitation Centre, India’s first old-age home for the pachyderm, was opened yesterday at the serene Agasthyavanam Biological Park, a major attraction for the eco-tourists in Kerala. We’ll convert this into a pilgrimage centre for animal lovers all over the world,†Forest Minister Binoy Vishwam said as he opened the c...
2008-08-28 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
You don't always get thanked for your good deeds - certainly not these villagers anyway, as they found out after rescuing this Sri Lanka elephant after it fell into a local well. It seemed rather more angry than happy, giving the local cameraman who was filming a run for his money as well as the villagers who helped him. The baby elephant in question had fallen into a cultivation well in one of the farming areas in North Central Sri Lankan Province, it's an increasing sight as many of the elepha...
2008-08-28 - Vienna, United States. Lloyd Grove
What we´re doing with the Asian elephant is the best work in the world. We have the only sustainable herd of Asian elephants in the Western Hemisphere. It´s only through our Center for Elephant Conservation—that´s only about reproduction, research, and retirement of Asian elephants—that the zoos or anyone else can really hopefully propagate this species in the wild—that there are only 30,000 of.
2008-08-28 - Windhoek, Namibia. Wezi Tjaronda
Director of Parks and Wildlife Management, Ben Beytell, says some rivers should be closed for normal tourism access as a way of reducing the elephant-human conflict. Beytell said it was his opinion that this should be the ministry’s next proposal to Cabinet. He said there was an enormous elephant-human conflict problem caused mainly because of irresponsible and uncontrolled tourism activities in such areas. Although this is happening near all rivers where elephants live, the problem along Ugab...
2008-08-28 - Washington, United States. Gobush KS, Mutayoba BM, Wasser SK. niversity of Washington, Box 351800, Seattle
Widespread poaching prior to the 1989 ivory ban greatly altered the demographic structure of matrilineal African elephant (Loxodonta africana) family groups in many populations by decreasing the number of old, adult females. We assessed the long-term impacts of poaching by investigating genetic, physiological, and reproductive correlates of a disturbed social structure resulting from heavy poaching of an African elephant population in Mikumi National Park, Tanzania, prior to 1989. We examined fe...
2008-08-27 - Evansville, United States. Rich Davis
Karl Kae Knecht, a photographer and The Evansville Courier's front-page editorial cartoonist from 1906 until 1960, was a lifelong circus fan. Courtesy Willard Library A parade down Riverside Drive on June 14, 1929, celebrates Kay the elephant's arrival in Evansville from Germany. A young Kay is shown in the Washington Avenue backyard of zoo superintendent Clem Kevekordes. She stayed there until the Knecht Building was finished in 1931. Courtesy Willard Library Wesiba the chimpanzee helps christe...
2008-08-27 - Portland, United States.
The new baby elephant that arrived last weekend at the Oregon Zoo gave it a tremendous gift a 281.6-pound boost. But the baby's arrival is well-timed for another reason, too. In November, the region's voters will decide whether to support a $125 million bond measure that includes $30 million to expand the zoo's cramped elephant quarters. (In a memorable phrase in June, The Oregonian's Susan Nielsen described the current indoor viewing area and 1.5-acre yard shared by six, now seven, elephants as...
2008-08-27 - Windhoek, Namibia. Wezi Tjaronda
The Ministry of Environment and Tourism says Namibia has more elephants now than at any other time in the last 100 years. Growing at a rate of 3.3 percent per year, the country’s elephant population is more than 20 000, up from 16 000 in 2004. Minister of Environment and Tourism, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, said on Monday the entire population especially that of the Kunene Region was healthy and growing, with the levels of consumptive off takes being very conservative and being below the sustainab...
2008-08-27 - New Ziana, Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said on Sunday it has not yet started implementing any of the 2005 recommendations of the Sadc Taskforce on strategies to control the population of elephants in the region. Director-General Dr Morris Mutsambiwa said the Government had not yet taken a position on any of the four methods that Sadc countries were given the greenlight to adopt in 2005. "Although culling is a recognised method of controlling populations, we have not started impleme...
2008-08-27 - Dallas, United States. Carol Cavazos
The controversy over the Dallas Zoo elephant named Jenny has taken a musical turn. One songwriter is hoping her effort will help give Jenny a new home. "There's nothing that really tells about an issue more than a song… more than music," explained singer Beverly Perry. 'Jenny's Song' was recorded in a professional studio Tuesday night. The music and lyrics were birthed out of concern for the aging elephant. One verse of the song expresses the concern for the animal saying, "Your troubled life ...
2008-08-27 - Jamshedpur, India. ANKUSH SINGH
Numbers suggest the tuskers are fast disappearing. The conflict between man and animal has taken a toll on the elephant population at the Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary, around 10km from the city. According to the census report of 2008, the elephant count stands at 80, 16 less than the last census prepared in 2003. Officials said in villages of Jharkhand and Bengal, elephants mostly die due to conflict with humans. They explained that two elephants were electrocuted by an overhead wire near the Dimna ...
2008-08-27 - Philadelphia, United States. Bonnie L. Cook
Petal, the Philadelphia Zoo's beloved African elephant, died of acute heart and lung failure after she fell on her side while sleeping, zoo officials said yesterday. What's more, the 52-year-old pachyderm, the oldest of her kind in an American zoo, suffered from an underlying condition related to aging - heart disease, according to autopsy results released yesterday. "Like some elderly people, older animals are often able to compensate for chronic health problems up to a point, but when somethin...
2008-08-26 - Idukki, India.
A mahout died on Sunday after he fell with his elephant from a moving truck near Kerala’s Idukki. Maitheen, 64, was crushed under the weight of the pachyderm.
2008-08-26 - Bangkok, Thailand. APINYA WIPATAYOTIN
Researchers from Chiang Mai University (CMU) have a new means of fighting phobias and depression _ elephants. CMU had previously studied the effects of ''elephant therapy'' on autistic children and, having noted promising results, are now proposing a similar programme for people suffering from depression or phobias. Audomsark Haesungcharern, dean of CMU's associated medical sciences faculty, believes the animals' voice may have therapeutic qualities.
2008-08-26 - Afiaso, Ghana. Alister Doyle
Rising elephant numbers in a protected forest park in Ghana are angering farmers whose crops are being raided in an unwanted side-effect of a plan to slow deforestation. Locals in Afiaso, a village of 620 people in southern Ghana with no electricity nor running water, grumble that they are seeing limited benefits from agreeing to cooperate in protecting Kakum National Park forest, which starts 2 km (1 mile) away. "We used to cut down a lot of trees to plant cocoa. Cutting down trees used to be n...
2008-08-26 - Auckland, New Zealand. HEATHER McCRACKEN
Officials are facing the prospect of Auckland Zoo without elephants. Plans are being developed for the future of young Asian elephant Burma, who couldn’t remain on her own if Kashin died. There are no immediate concerns about the older elephant, who turns 40 this year. But zoo director Jonathan Wilcken says decisions need to be made in advance on whether to bring more elephants to New Zealand or send Burma away. "Kashin’s approaching 40 and for some time now she’s been treat...
2008-08-26 - Sulthan Bathery, India.
An elephant patrol will roam the deep forests of Kerala in a bid to check poaching. The anti-poaching patrol in Wayanad district consists of three elephants, mahouts and forest officials.‘We started the patrol Monday. The team has around 15 members. We arranged this patrol following information from Tamil Nadu authorities that poachers could become active along Kerala-Tamil Nadu border this season,’ K. Radhakrishna Lal, assistant wildlife warden at Muthanga in Wayanad, told IANS.
2008-08-26 - Virunga, Congo.
The director of one of central Africa's most important wildlife reserves has warned that rebels and soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo are increasingly targeting elephants in the area to supply ivory to china. In an interview with the Bloomberg news agency, Virunga National Park's director, Emmanuel de Merode, warned that as many as ten per cent of the area's elephant population has been killed by poachers in recent years. Specifically, Mr de Merode said that seven elephants have bee...
2008-08-26 - SOMERSET COUNTY, United States.
In a couple weeks, the first African elephant will be moving to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium's International Conservation Center near Fairhope, Somerset County. The center's primary focus will be breeding programs, something the Pittsburgh Zoo has renowned success in, thanks in part to its elephant bull named Jackson. Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium President Dr. Barbara Baker said "Jackson has eight babies on the ground and two more are due to be born shortly." The electric fencing is in pla...
2008-08-26 - Bankura, India.
A herd of 60 elephants entered Bankura district last night. According to senior forest officials, on Tuesday morning the herd was sighted at the Bankadaha range in the jungles under the Panchet Soil Conservation division in Bishnupur. The herd, comprising four tuskers, is the first herd to enter Bankura this monsoon. At Asthasole, the herd entered agricultural land and destroyed a significant amount of standing crop. The forest division, however, doesn’t have any plan to drive the elephants ou...
2008-08-26 - Philadelphia, United States. Bonnie L. Cook
Petal, the Philadelphia Zoo's beloved African elephant, died of acute heart and lung failure after she fell on her side while sleeping, zoo officials said yesterday. What's more, the 52-year-old pachyderm, the oldest of her kind in an American zoo, suffered from an underlying condition related to aging - heart disease, according to autopsy results released Tuesday. At autopsy, pathologists found latent traces of a bacteria that can cause tuberculosis in Petal's lung tissue, according to prelimin...
2008-08-25 - Portland, United States. Jeff Thompson
Rose-Tu and her newborn calf at the Oregon Zoo are continuing the reintroduction process after some scary moments Saturday afternoon. When the 280-pound calf was born, keepers say Rose-Tu was confused, having never witnessed an elephant birth before. She started kicking the baby and keepers had to intervene and separate the two. The calf has since been monitored and seems to be okay. Mike Keele, zoo asssistant director, says keepers and vets are carefully continuing the re-introduction process s...
2008-08-25 - Ruskin, United States. Eric Beheim, Buckles WebLog
"Toug-Toulog" the sacred white elephant was imported to the Barnum & London Show in 1884 and thus began the famous White Elephant War between Barnum and his rival Adam Forepaugh who simply painted an elephant white. Since Albino elephants are actually somewhat gray in color, Barnum's elephant was something of a disappointment whereas Forepaugh's (John) was as white as the driven snow, leading to charges and counter charges of fakery. Three years later "Toug-Toulog" and three other ...
2008-08-25 - Dallas, United States.
Africam Safari in Puebla, Mexico was very nearly the new home of the Dallas zoo's last elephant, the troubled and famous Jenny (don't those always go hand in hand). But after weeks of protests and a bit of bad press, the Dallas Zoo decided that it was best, for Jenny's health, that she stay right here. Tomorrow, the owners of Africam will be at City Hall to tell their side of the story and defend their institution from claims of protesters that their facility is nothing more than a "drive throug...
2008-08-25 - Portland, United States. ANTONIA GIEDWOYN
Happy news for a baby elephant born at the Oregon Zoo over the weekend – elephant mother Rose-Tu has begun nursing her calf and appears to have accepted her newborn. The calf began walking up to his mother and successfully nursing on both sides, according to zoo spokeswoman Linda D'Ae-Smith. When Rose-Tu gets tired, staff supplements the nursing with a bottle.
2008-08-25 - Kinshasa, Congo. Franz Wild
Rebels and soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed more than a 10th of the elephants in one of Africa's oldest national parks as demand for ivory in China grows, said Emmanuel de Merode, director of the Virunga National Park. Members of a Rwandan militia in the country's eastern North Kivu province killed seven elephants in the last two weeks, taking this year's total to 24, de Merode said today in an interview from the park's headquarters in Rumangabo.
2008-08-25 - Mmadinare, Botswana. Jeremiah Sejabosigo
Mmadinare Development Trust sold its quota of 14 elephants from the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism at the main kgotla of the village last week, where all the elephants were bought by the highest bidders. Mr Graeme Phillips of Auctioneers Botswana conducted the sale on behalf of the trust. Hunting of the auctioned elephants will be done in the CT27 hunting area, which falls in the range between Letsibogo, Mmadinare and Mathathane areas.
2008-08-25 - Portland, United States.
watch photographers pictures from Rose-Tu´s ultrasound until the baby is being dried by the keepers
2008-08-25 - Rombo, Tanzania. AMINA JUMA
Rombo District Council in Kilimanjaro Region has incurred a loss of 718m/- due to destruction done by elephants which wandered into the villages from Tsavo National Park in neighbouring Kenya and ruined food crop farms. Rombo District has been facing the problem for more than fifteen years now whereby elephants cause havoc in the villages, destroying farms and other property. Speaking with 'Daily News' at the weekend, the District Director, Mr Naijaijaya Koira, said up to June this year the dist...
Rose-Tu and her calf have been together since 5 p.m. last night, supervised by keepers. She's letting him nurse and gently tucks him underneath her when he does so. She's so relaxed during nursing, it sometimes looks like she's sleeping. The baby continues to get stronger and is sucking heartily. When Rose-Tu appears too tired to nurse, keepers supplement his diet with elephant formula, delivered via a 12-ounce bottle with a large, specially crafted nipple. The baby elephant is taking in about 1...
2008-08-25 - Little Rock, United States.
Temporary Part-time employment available for Elephant & Lg. Hoofstock Keeper. Position is 36-40 hours/week. Pay rate of $8.00 to $10.50/hour is available depending on experience. This position will work with Asian Elephants as well as Black and White Rhinos, Giraffe, and Zebra. Experience in working free contact with elephants is helpful but not necessary. Our institution is willing to train a hard-working, motivated, enthusiastic individual with a specific interest in elephants. This position h...
2008-08-24 - Portland, United States.
Rose-Tu has given birth to her first baby, the 28th elephant born in the history of the Oregon Zoo. The 14-year-old Asian elephant delivered the 286-pound male calf Saturday afternoon and immediately kicked it, a common way mother elephants encourage infants to stand. Zookeepers, however, rushed in when the kicking became too violent. Mike Keele, the zoo's deputy director, believes that because Rose-Tu had never seen a birth before, she became confused when the baby was born. "Our veterinarians ...
2008-08-24 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Risidra Mendis
Can you imagine a perahera without an elephant? This is a thought that constantly crosses our minds especially with the fast dwindling elephant population in the country. The main attraction at the annual Kandy Esela Perahera is the majestic tusker, draped in a colourful costume decorated with beads and sequins, carrying the tooth relic. The tuskers and elephants are at times in musth but are forced by their mahouts to take part in the perahera, resulting in cases where elephants run amok and i...
2008-08-24 - Kandy, Sri Lanka. S. M. Jiffrey ABDEEN- Kandy South Group Corr
Elephants live in herds are led by the oldest female elephant in the herd. The male elephant is driven away from the herd to prevent breeding. These are the strange ways of elephants said the Managing Trustee of Bio Diversity and Elephant Conservation Trust and leading expert on Asian elephants and former planter Jayantha Jayawardena. Jayawardena said that the elephants in Sri Lanka are highly threatened in spite of what anyone may say to the contrary. Explaining the reasons for the Human - Elep...
2008-08-24 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Malaka Rodrigo
The baby abduction from Kalubowila led to the discovery of a baby smuggling racket that shocked the nation. At present, Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department officers are investigating trails of baby elephants allegedly being abducted from the wild. The recovery of a baby elephant illegally held without a proper permit in an estate close to Colombo is probably only the tip of this iceberg, they feel. The elephant is now in the Uda Walawe Elephant Transit Home.
2008-08-24 - Kinshasa, Congo. Wildlife extra
Two elephants have been killed by FDLR rebels near Rwindi, in the central sector of Virunga National Park. The FDLR are comprised of Hutu militia who were involved in the Rwandan genocide. A group of Congo Rangers had gone on patrol on the Rwindi plain encountered a group of FDLR poachers. A gunfight ensued and the Rangers were able to push the rebels back. No-one was injured on either side and the rebels escaped. The Rangers then discovered the bodies of two elephants that the rebels had killed...
2008-08-24 - London, United Kingdom. Kathryn Phillips, Journal of Experimental Biology 211, i (2008)
Throughout history, elephants have been thought of as `different'. Shakespeare, and even Aristotle, described them as walking on inflexible column-like legs. And this myth persists even today. Which made John Hutchinson from The Royal Veterinary College, London, want to find out more about elephants and the way they move. Are they really that different from other, more fleet-footed species? Are their legs as rigid and `columnar' as people had thought? Travelling to Thailand and several UK zoos, ...
2008-08-23 - Washington, United States.
This free event will feature demonstrations on how our keepers and vets care for elephants, and what a day in the life of a Zoo elephant is like. You can also sneak a peek at the construction of our Elephant Trails exhibit. Watch the elephants as they are bathed, weighed, and trained to hold still for physical exams, weighing, and x-rays. Our female elephant, Ambika, turns 60 this year so stop by the yards at 1 p.m. to watch her enjoy her birthday “cake,†specially prepared by the Zo...
2008-08-23 - Goa, India. PANKAJ SEKHSARIA
Wild elephant migration from Karnataka to Goa and Maharashtra is termed ‘unnatural’ and Goa seeks Maharashtra’s help to drive the animals back. When Goa starts the operation it finds that its efforts to drive back the elephants have been hampered by trenches dug on the Maharashtra side to prevent the animals from entering that state. Goan authorities are asking Project Elephant authorities to intervene and ask Maharashtra to behave. Elephants that had ‘strayed’ from Orissa into Andhra ...
2008-08-22 - Kinshasa, Congo. Joe Bavier
Poachers in Congo have killed a fifth of the elephants in Africa's oldest national park this year as China buys more ivory, the park's director said on Friday. Rwandan rebels have killed seven Savannah elephants in the past 10 days alone in the Virunga National Park, along Congo's eastern border with Rwanda and Uganda, Emmanuel de Merode told Reuters. "We've definitely lost 20 percent of the population this year and probably more," he said. "We have rangers with them, and we're trying to reinfor...
2008-08-22 - Portland, United States. Katy Muldoon
Anxiety simmers at the Oregon Zoo, and it's no wonder. For the first time in 14 years, just as the zoo faces key decisions about its future, one of its Asian elephants --the institution's flagship species --is about to give birth. If all goes well, an adorably wobbly, floppy eared calf could draw tens of thousands of extra visitors and prompt a wave of positive publicity at an opportune time: Metro, which owns the zoo, will ask voters in November to approve a $117 million bond measure to upgrade...
Poachers in Congo have killed a fifthof the elephants in Africa's oldest national park this year asChina buys more ivory, the park's director said on Friday. Rwandan rebels have killed seven Savannah elephants in thepast 10 days alone in the Virunga National Park, along Congo'seastern border with Rwanda and Uganda, Emmanuel de Merode toldReuters. "We've definitely lost 20 percent of the population thisyear and probably more," he said. "We have rangers with them,and we're trying to reinforce them...
2008-08-22 - AGARTALA, India.
Border Security Force (BSF) troopers gunned down a Bangladeshi national in Tripura and captured two elephants he and his associates were allegedly trying to smuggle into India, officials said on Friday. The incident occurred in Kailashahar in north Tripura, some 175 km from the state capital Agartala. The BSF troopers shot dead a Bangladeshi national who was trying to smuggle elephants into India. His two companions managed to escape.
2008-08-22 - Phoenix, United States.
The Phoenix Zoo is accepting applications for a part-time regular Keeper working in our Elephant Sanctuary. Essential duties involve interaction with both the animals and visiting public. Keepers will observe assigned animals on a daily basis, reporting any abnormalities; perform routine husbandry and environmental maintenance; feed prescribed diets; perform assigned and approved animal enrichment activities and trainings; assist in the restraint and treatment of animals; participate in non-rout...
2008-08-21 - Greenbrier, United States. Bill Bonucci, Elephant Manager, Riddle's Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary
Riddle's Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary has an open position working with African and Asian elephants. The successful candidate will be responsible for providing elephant care, maintaining and cleaning animal areas, preparing feed, and grounds upkeep. The position requires a high school diploma or equivalent; one-year experience working with elephants is preferred; good communication/organizational skills and ability to work well as a team; and a class “C” driver license with an acceptable ...
2008-08-20 - Kandy, Sri Lanka. R.A.Ratwatte, Basnayake Nilame – Lankatilleke Sri Vishnu Devalaya- Handessa
There seems to be a belief among the general populace that a perahera is judged by the number of elephants therein. One of the first questions that is asked when one says one has viewed a perahera is: "How many elephants?" A large number is greeted with an appropriate response and a small number is invariably greeted with derision and an insinuation that one has wasted one’s time at that perahera! Contrary to popular belief and the belief of certain uneducated custodians of temples and organis...
2008-08-20 - Windhoek, Namibia.
Namibia will impose a ban on all trade with 'worked ivory' from next month in a bid to assert its control and abide by international regulations on endangered species, an official said on Wednesday. "We have to strengthen control measures in ivory trade to abide by provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which requires specific legislation," Kalumbi Shangula told reporters. Windhoek jeweller Horst Knop welcomed the move but said jewellers and goldsmiths...
2008-08-20 - Dallas, United States. JASON WHITELY
The Dallas Zoo has decided to keep Jenny, 32, its lone African elephant, after weeks of controversy over whether she should be sent to a zoo in Mexico. The Dallas Zoo originally planned to close its elephant exhibit and send Jenny away while it built a much larger exhibit here. But the zoo's idea to loan Jenny to the Africam Safari Park in Puebla, Mexico generated thousands of e-mails and phone calls in protest to city leaders. Opponents wanted Jenny to instead be retired to The Elephant Sanctua...
2008-08-20 - Tokyo, Japan. Ewen Callaway, NewScientist.com news service
Add elephants to the growing menagerie of animals that can count. An Asian elephant named Ashya beat this reporter at a devilishly simple addition problem. When a trainer dropped three apples into one bucket and one apple into a second, then four more apples in the first and five more in the second, the pacaderm recognised that three plus four is greater than one plus five, and snacked on the seven apples. (In my defence, I watched the video in a noisy and crowded auditorium.)
2008-08-20 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Shakuntala Perera
No other animal in Sri Lanka has suffered the wrath of human interference like the elephant. Every year records a number of elephant deaths that the country can ill afford. If there are no ill planned elephant drives killing them, there are the gun shots. The latest in the series of causes for concern was the finding of a calf in chains at a location in Athurugiriya. The owner of the calf could not produce a proper license. The Flying Squad of the Wild Life Department found the three year old ma...
2008-08-20 - Windhoek, Namibia. Johannes Haasbroek
Six elephant trophy permits were issued recently for the Kunene region conservancies and to date five out of the six elephants have been shot. As we firmly believe the population cannot sustain this take off we have decided to issue a press release to clarify our position on this matter. Elephant-Human Relations Aid is a Namibian based Non-Governmental Organization, established in 2003 in the Southern Kunene Region, helping communal farmers in the region to deal with elephant-human conflict issu...
2008-08-20 - Tokyo, Japan. Irie-Sugimoto N, Kobayashi T, Sato T, Hasegawa T. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo
This study investigated whether Asian elephants can make relative quantity judgment (RQJ), a dichotomous judgment of unequal quantities ordered in magnitude. In Experiment 1, elephants were simultaneously shown two baskets with differing quantities of bait (up to 6 items). In Experiment 2, elephants were sequentially presented with baits, which could not be seen by elephants in their total quantities. The task of elephants was to choose the larger quantity in both experiments. Results showed tha...
2008-08-20 - Pittsburgh, United States.
The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium is seeking experienced elephant keepers that would be interested in joining a progressive elephant management team, utilizing both free and protected contact. The successful candidates primary job assignment will be at the zoo’s International Conservation Center just outside of Berlin, PA about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh. We will also require a moderate amount of time spent at the zoo’s facility in Pittsburgh to facilitate the development of a ve...
2008-08-19 - MontÂgomery, United States. Teri Greene
A male African elephant calf born early Thursday morning at the MontÂgomery Zoo was the second elephant calf born at the zoo within the past year. But the joyous occasion was soon marred by sorrow. After giving birth, the elephant calf's 23-year-old mother became ill. She died Saturday, reported Sarah McKemey of the Montgomery Zoo. Preliminary necropsy results inÂdicate that Mary, one of the zoo's perÂmanent elephant herd, died from complications due to colic with intesÂtinal rupture...
2008-08-19 - Washington, United States.
On a seemingly ordinary day in November, 2001, something amazing happens at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. aby Kandula is born. His birth marks a rare success and huge scientific milestone for the zoological community: The 320-pound newborn is only the second Asian elephant to be born through artificial insemination. Watch as this playful, rambunctious youngster grows up right before your eyes taking his first steps, learning to feed and figuring out how to manipulate object...
2008-08-19 - Cleveland, United States. Michael Sangiacomo
Viktor Schreckengost's massive wall sculptures of mastodons and mammoths, on display at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo since 1956, are coming down. But the popular sculptures by the man called "Cleveland's Da Vinci" will not be gone for long. After cleaning and repairing, they will become part of a new zoo entrance in 2010. "After all those years at the pachyderm building, the sculptures will be in an area of even greater prominence and open to more people than ever," said Elizabeth Fowler of the ...
2008-08-19 - Stetten ob Lontal, Germany. Silke Jeklic
It was a cool afternoon. A small gathering of people assembled at the Swabian village Stetten ob Lontal, in Germany. They waited for a guided trip to Vogelherd Cave. It cannot be called a real cave, like one that allows you to descend deeply into the earth and that might feature artfully dripping stalactite and stalagmite sculptures, perhaps like the Charlotte Cave and other natural caves found in the Swabian Alps. Excursion leader Brigitta Roeck led the group in stages up a soft, rain-soaked fo...
2008-08-19 - Melbourne, Australia.
Melbourne Zoo has confirmed that 15 year old Dokkoon, one of three Asian Elephants that arrived in November 2006, is pregnant. The pregnancy is the result of artificial insemination carried out in March by the Melbourne Zoo and visiting fertility specialists from the Berlin Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. Bong Su, Melbourne Zoo’s bull elephant is the father. The pregnancy was confirmed by ultrasound in early June. The ultrasound showed a black sack of amniotic fluid containing a tiny ...
2008-08-19 - Montgomery, United States. Markeshia Ricks
State Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks said the department's diagnostic lab in Auburn was able to assist the Montgomery Zoo with diagnostic services this past weekend for an elephant that died at the zoo. Lab staff examined the 23 year-old animal and determined that it died from intussusception, a rare intestinal disorder. “The unfortunate loss of such a grand animal is a reminder of how important diagnostic ability is to veterinary health,” Sparks said. “Knowledge is ess...
2008-08-18 - Udhagamandalam, India. D. Radhakrishnan
The kumki (working) elephants of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve near here which have over the decades played a significant role in spreading the name of the sanctuary far and wide have of late been entrusted with the additional responsibility of keeping poachers at bay. Long considered the pride of Mudumalai, the kumkis have now become an integral part of the anti-poaching operations. Pointing out that for the past few weeks the kumkis have been a source of strength to the anti-poaching staff, the ...
2008-08-18 - Pittsburgh, United States. Patricia Sheridan, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Willie Theison, renowned elephant manager at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, oversaw the birth of two baby elephants (Angelina and Zuri) within weeks of each other in July. He was involved with a recent National Geographic special looking at elephants in India and the conflict between them and the human population.
2008-08-18 - Way Kambas, Indonesia.
Today we visited a National Park here in Southern Sumatra. ‘Way Kambas’ hosts five endangered mammals - elephants, Sumatran Tigers, Sun Bears, tapirs and the Sumatran rhino. The facilities for the elephants are not so flash. The idea behind the creation of the Elephant Training Centre was to remove wild elephants that were threatening local villages and to train them to work in logging and tourism. Kids go for rides on a few of these beautful creatures, while those not working graze nearby.
2008-08-18 - Hunsur, India.
Preparations for this year's Dasara festivities were set into motion today when District in-charge Minister Shobha Karandlaje flagged off the journey of elephants (Gajapayana) towards Mysore. The Minister inaugurated the journey of the first batch of the caparisoned elephants at Veera-nahosahalli gate in Nagarahole forests, about 28 kms from here in the morning. She lit the traditional lamp at the gate and broke a ash gourd. The journey began as the Minister showered flower petals on the elephan...
2008-08-18 - Surin, Thailand. Gillian Murdoch
Trudging the city streets with a hungry four-tonne elephant at your heels is not a job for everyone. But add a cute baby, and tourists flock to pet and feed the grey-brown giants, making the plodding pachyderms more of an investment than a curse for modern mahouts working in Thailand, one of Asia's top holiday destinations. With logging banned in 1989, more babies are hitting streets and trekking camps to meet tourism-driven demand for docile, good-looking animals, said the director of the Thai ...
2008-08-18 - Little Rock, United States. L. LAMOR WILLIAMS
The elephants almost seemed to be eavesdropping. They’d seen Little Rock Zoo’s new curator for hoof stock and birds, Joseph Darcangelo, passing their enclosure. He was explaining renovations of the elephant house, expected to double in size by spring 2009. As if they knew he was talking about them and their home — the renovation also includes a new pool, kitchen and corral area to keep the elephants from moving around during examinations — the two female Asian elephants, named Ellen and ...
2008-08-18 - Amboseli, Kenya. Hcroze, Amboseli Trust for Elephants
The Amboseli Trust for Elephants field team has been forced to open a new eastern front in the continuing war to conserve elephants and the ecosystem. Already over the past two months our Maasai Elephant Scouts have reported that possibly six large breeding bulls have been killed in the Kimana-Kuku area. One was speared in early July. Another found dead with four spear wounds and the tusks already taken. Another, as the Scouts could reconstruct from tracks, retreated into dense push and managed ...
2008-08-18 - Samburu, United States. David Quammen, Michael Nichols, National Geographic
The biologist Iain Douglas-Hamilton is walking up on an elephant, a sizable young female, nubile and shy. Her name, as she's known to him and his colleagues, is Anne. She stands half-concealed within a cluster of trees on the knob of a hill in remote northern Kenya, browsing tranquilly with several members of her family. Around her neck hangs a stout leather collar along which, at the crest of her shoulders, like a tiny porkpie hat, sits an electronic transmitter. That transmitter has allowed Do...
2008-08-18 - MONTGOMERY, United States. John Shryock
The Montgomery Zoo lost a star in one of its main attractions over the weekend. Mary, an elephant in the zoo's collection, died Saturday just days after giving birth to a male African elephant calf. She was 23-years-old. Zoo officials say a preliminary necropsy showed that the elephant died of complications due to colic with intestinal rupture. Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks says the Department of Agriculture and Industries' Diagonstic Lab in Auburn helped with the necropsy. "The unfortunat...
2008-08-18 - Portland, United States. Katy Muldoon, The Oregonian
Anxiety simmers at the Oregon Zoo, and it's no wonder. For the first time in 14 years, just as the zoo faces key decisions about its future, one of its Asian elephants the institution's flagship species is about to give birth. If all goes well, an adorably wobbly, floppy-eared calf could draw tens of thousands of extra visitors and prompt a wave of positive publicity at an opportune time: Metro, which owns the zoo, will ask voters in November to approve a $117 million bond measure to upgrade exh...
2008-08-18 - San Antonio, United States. AZA
The San Antonio Zoo currently has a need for a Zoo Keeper in our Elephant Department. Duties include daily cleaning, feeding, and maintenance of animal exhibits. Zoo Keepers observe, evaluate, and report animal behavior and condition to their supervisor on a daily basis. They assist in treating Zoo animals in accordance with instructions from their supervisor or veterinarian. Minimum qualifications include ability to work weekends, holidays, and occasional after-hours assignments; valid driver...
2008-08-18 - Beijing, China. Dominique Patton
In a cosy workshop filled with the smell of fresh wood chip, neatly arranged tables and well-worn carving tools, Fang Fu Zhai reminisces about his days working with ivory. “Only the best people were picked to carve ivory. If you were chosen, you had to move out of the main workshop to an area where they kept an eye on the piece. They were afraid of it being stolen.†Mr Fang seldom gets his carver’s hands on ivory nowadays. Since the ban on the global ivory trade almost 20 year...
2008-08-18 - Harare, Zimbabwe. Violet Gonda
Zimbabwe’s once thriving wildlife and tourism industry is under serious threat as authorities continue to kill elephants and other animals at an alarming rate. Johnny Rodrigues, the chairman for the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management has embarked on what they are calling an "Elephant Population Management Programme". But the authorities are deliberately targeting elephants with the largest tusks, which has nothing to do with pop...
2008-08-18 - Nairobi, Kenya.
The Kenya Wildlife Service officers in collaboration with the Kenya Airport Authority have arrested three Chinese Nationals with 2.2 kilograms of processed ivory at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), Nairobi. The three Chinese, who were travelling to Harare, Zimbabwe, were arrested and taken to the JKIA police station when they failed to produce any valid CITES permits allowing them to travel with the carved trophies.
2008-08-18 - Thrissur, India.
Indian elephants are now walking a fashion ramp with a difference, providing their footprints to be printed on textile carry bags of New York-based fashion designer Barbara Gerard, who is here getting her models to perform. Gerard is at this cultural capital of Kerala to also introduce a new concept for children called "Elephant House". She said her concept was an innovative exploration of the Asian elephant involving the six senses as seen through the lens of video, film, painting, photography,...
2008-08-17 - Waco, United States. Kelsie Hahn
Like footprints in the sand, the Glen Rose dinosaur tracks and the Waco mammoth bones have run parallel journeys through modern history. Separated by millions of years in their creation and decades in their discovery, both have gone from surprising find to national sensation to community cause, and the Waco Mammoth Site’s unveiling as a full-fledged park is only a step away, projected for late 2009. Both cities, however, say these sites are only a piece of the attractions that make for success...
2008-08-17 - Portland, United States. KATY MULDOON
Anxiety simmers at the Oregon Zoo, and it's no wonder. For the first time in 14 years, just as the zoo faces key decisions about its future, one of its Asian elephants -- the institution's flagship species -- is about to give birth. If all goes well, an adorably wobbly, floppy eared calf could draw tens of thousands of extra visitors and prompt a wave of positive publicity at an opportune time: Metro, which owns the zoo, will ask voters in November to approve a $117 million bond measure to upgra...
2008-08-17 - Kandy, Sri Lanka. P. Karunakharan
Nearly 100 caparisoned elephants, dancers and torchbearers walked down the streets of this central city decorated with colourful lights and flags as the annual Buddhist festival of Kandy Perahera (pageant) was celebrated with great enthusiasm. The colourful parade began Saturday night from the sacred Buddhist shrine of Dalada Maligawa, showcasing the temple custodians known as Nilames, who were dressed up like ancient kings. The festivities also included traditional Kandyan dancers, fire-jugglin...
2008-08-17 - Mysore, India.
The first batch of elephants participating in the Dasara procession will begin their journey (Gaja payana) towards the city from tomorrow. The District In-charge Minister Shobha Karandlaje will flag off the journey at Veeranahosahalli in Nagarahole forests at 9.30 am tomorrow with a special puja. The first batch of six elephants including Balaram, which has successfully carried the 'Golden Howdah' (Ambari) eight times in a row, will be heading towards the city. The batch includes Balarama, Bhara...
2008-08-16 - Burnet Park, United States.
The Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park will host Asian Elephant Extravaganza, presented by Total Care Incorporated, on Saturday, August 16 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The annual event celebrates Asian culture and honors the Rosamond Gifford Zoo’s Asian elephant herd, which includes Indy, Siri, Romani and Kirina. The many activities planned for the event include elephant demonstrations, cultural performances, games, puppet shows and more!
2008-08-16 - John Mariani, United States.
Pass the word it's OK to pet the elephants again at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park. The state Department of Environmental Conservation told zoo officials Friday that it would amend the zoo's endangered/threatened species license to allow contact between the zoo's elephants and their human visitors. The move came just in time for the zoo's Asian Elephant Extravaganza, an annual celebration of its pachyderm herd and Asian culture taking place 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today.
2008-08-14 - Matale, Sri Lanka. Nimal S.Bogahawatta
A man was trampled to death by a tamed elephant near the Karandagolla bridge in Matale on Tuesday. The victim K.I.B.Jayasuriya of Karandagolla died on the spot. The Matale police are conducting further inquiries.
2008-08-14 - Chester, United Kingdom.
It’s all change in the animal division with new team leaders for both the giraffe and elephant sections. There is also a new face at the elephants where Evelyn De Wolf takes over as team leader. Evelyn joins the zoo from Bellewaerde Park in Belgium where she was the animal curator. Kevin Buley, Chester Zoo’s Head of Zoo Programmes, said: “As the zoo continues to successfully grow and expand, new opportunities arise for our dedicated staff.
2008-08-13 - Dehradun, India.
In A unique move, the authorities at Rajaji National Park have undertaken a project to build an overpass above a stretch of railway tracks and a motorable road for the movement of elephants. Once completed, this 1.5-km stretch between Motichur railway crossing to Raiwala in Haridwar district will be the first overpass of its kind in the world. It is being constructed at the directions of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court, in order to protect the corridor through which el...
2008-08-13 - Mangochi, Malawi. Emelyn Nyoni
A 70-year-old Mangochi man died on the spot after five marauding elephants trampled upon him last week. Officer-in-Charge of Lake Malawi National Park Samuel Nyanyale confirmed the development saying the old man met his fate as he fetched firewood along the Phirilongwe Forest Reserve in the district. The deceased, Lester Kamacho from Thera Village, Traditional Authority Mponda in the district, was all by himself in the forest when he encountered the elephants around 5.00pm on Friday.
2008-08-13 - Dallas, United States. BRAD HAWKINS
There has been more debate in and outside Dallas City Hall today on the future of Jenny, the Dallas Zoo's lone elephant. Activists say they are going to keep coming to Dallas City Hall until there is an "acceptable" solution to the problem of what to do with Jenny. There may be other options other than the Africam Safari Park in Puebla, Mexico and the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee. Today, there was a new voice among those who say Jenny should not be sent to Mexico. "We recommend tha...
2008-08-12 - Kunene, Namibia. JOHN GROBLER
A storm of public protest has erupted over Namibian authorities' decision to allow six Kunene region elephant bulls to be shot as trophies -- three of them true desert-adapted elephants -- in what critics are charging is a "quick-buck mentality" that could damage Namibia's reputation as a pristine tourism destination. Like that of its fellow black rhino denizens, the elephant population in the arid Kunene region was decimated in the era of uncontrolled hunting in the Eighties, during which apart...
2008-08-12 - Kolmarden, Sweden. Dan Koehl
This website, www.elephant-news.com was created in october 2001. Today, some seven years later, the database reached 4000 articles, which are all indexed in the database, searchable, and therefore becoming a recource also for research and statistics. (Some of the original articles already deleted at the origial website) which you can search through from the searchfield in the upper left corner. You can even search the database from YOUR website
2008-08-12 - Bucharest, Romania.
Miners in Romania have unearthed the skeleton of a 2.5 million-year-old mastodon, believed to be one of the best preserved in Europe, a local official said Friday. They stumbled on the remains of the mammoth-like animal during excavations in June at a coal mine in the village of Racosul de Sus, around 100 miles (170 kilometers) northwest of Bucharest, according to Laszlo Demeter, a historian and local councilor. "This is one of the most spectacular finds in Europe," paleontologist Vlad Codrea, w...
2008-08-12 - Boras, Sweden. Marcus Svedin
An african bull elephant was born tonight at 23.44, without knowledge or presence of staff in Boras Zoo. This is Boras third birth, and the first son to Kibo, who was born in Hannover Zoo 1977. The birth was a little bit early, but all is well.
2008-08-12 - Johannesburg, South Africa. Jens Laurson and George Pieler
AFTER nearly 20 years, ivory trade is legal again. This is good news for callous lovers of exotic trinkets or traditionalists among pianists, but hardly a reason for elephants to celebrate, you might think. Somehow it’s not more comforting to know that China, quickly becoming the premier neocolonial force in Africa, is a key reason why the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) has allowed the export of 110 tons of ivory. The other reason is Jap...
2008-08-11 - London, United Kingdom.
Elephants really do have a memory like, well, an elephant. Elephant matriarchs seem to retain memories of distant, life-sustaining sources of food and water, a new study suggests. These memories could be key to the survival of their family groups during lean times. "Understanding how elephants and other animal populations react to droughts will be a central component of wildlife management and conservation," said lead author of the study, Charles Foley, of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)...
2008-08-11 - Mysore, India. Muralidhara Khajane
As the countdown for “Gajapayana”, scheduled to be held on August 18, has began, the tribal people living in the Nagarahole forest and mahouts and kavadis (helpers) of caparisoned elephants have threatened to boycott the Dasara festivities if the State Government “fails” to concede their long-pending demands. This has put the authorities in a piquant situation. “Gajapayana” is the ceremonial event in which the elephants participating in the “Jamboo Savari” march to Mysore Palace ...
2008-08-11 - Pinnawela, Sri Lanka. K. Venkateshwarlu
For keepers and mahouts alike, it was always a messy problem that defied solution. We are talking about the roughly 180 kg of waste an adult pachyderm generates a day. And imagine the pile if it were from a herd of 60 staying and sauntering about in one place. That is simply a problem of elephantine proportions at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage here in Sri Lanka, especially for the poor keepers. But it need not be anymore. For, the orphanage, counted among the best in the world for elephants, ...
2008-08-11 - Akron, United States.
An art dealer who operated import and export businesses in Canada and Cameroon that were fronts for smuggling raw elephant ivory has been sentenced to five years in prison and a $100,000 fine for smuggling ivory from Cameroon into the United States. Canadian citizen and former Montreal resident Tania Julie Siyam, 32, was sentenced in Akron, Ohio Thursday after pleading guilty in March to four felonies. The sentence, handed down by U.S. District Court Judge John Adams, is the result of a multi-y...
2008-08-11 - Honolulu, United States. Leanne Ta
An ongoing change is the expansion of the Indian elephant exhibit. Zookeepers are preparing to move elephants Mari and Vai Gai from their current 3,600-square-foot enclosure to a 30,000-square-foot space. Local landscapers will be contracted for the project, which will take about a year to build, Luscomb said. The zoo is searching for two more elephants — a cow and a bull — to add to the larger exhibit. About $6.8 million will go toward the project this year.
2008-08-10 - Raipur, India.
Chhattisgarh Sunday issued an advisory to forested people, mainly of Jashpur district facing repeated attacks by wild tuskers, to stay indoors at night. The forest department has advised Jashpur residents to remain in their houses after sunset till sunrise as a herd of rogue elephants is roaming in nearby araes. ‘If it is urgent to come out of houses between sunset and sunrise, then do only in a group and not alone, and also with sufficient light arrangements, to avoid elephants deadly attacks...
2008-08-10 - Thrissur, India. N V Davies
It is height of cruelty. It is alarming. And it is simply beyond belief. But it is a naked truth. Nearly 15 percent of the domesticated tuskers carrying Gods and Goddesses and entertaining public in festivals and celebrations in this God’s Own Country is partially or totally blind. Believe it or not, majority of these animals lost their eye-sight due to beating by their mahouts. Paradoxically, in this group of blind tuskers are some of the elegant ones most sought after by the organisers of fe...
2008-08-10 - Houston, United States.
The Houston Zoo Inc. is seeking an enthusiastic professional to join our Elephant Team. This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of an evolving and maturing elephant program. With a new exhibit and barn and continued elephant breeding, the Houston zoo elephant program is well on its way to becoming a state of the art program and facility. This is a full time, year-round position and includes responsibility for the care, husbandry, and training of the zoos 2.2 resident Asian elephants. In the...
2008-08-10 - Chhattisgarh, India.
Chhattisgarh Sunday issued an advisory to forested people, mainly of Jashpur district facing repeated attacks by wild tuskers, to stay indoors at night. The forest department has advised Jashpur residents to remain in their houses after sunset till sunrise as a herd of rogue elephants is roaming in nearby araes. 'If it is urgent to come out of houses between sunset and sunrise, then do only in a group and not alone, and also with sufficient light arrangements, to avoid elephants deadly attacks,'...
2008-08-09 - Thrissur, India.
US-based Grande Gesture director Barbara Gerard is in love with elephants. Talking to this website's newspaper, Barbara, who is engaged in a project on conservation of the Asian Elephants, said, "When I look at an elephant a lot of compassion is visible in its eyes and this is never told to our children.”It is important therefore to introduce the children to the gentle side of the elephant, she added. In an attempt to do this, she invented the idea of ‘Elephant House’, which is portable.
2008-08-08 - Seattle, United States.
The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle says an elephant that had been artificially inseminated has miscarried. The zoo says it's monitoring the 29-year-old Asian elephant Chai around the clock after Thursday's miscarriage, but she's eating and behaving normally. One of three elephants at the zoo, Chai had been inseminated in January with semen from an elephant named Sneezy at the zoo in Tulsa, Okla.
2008-08-08 - Kolmarden, Sweden. Mats Elting
Cute butt. The elephants at Kolmården is a gift from the King of Thailand to the King of Sweden
2008-08-08 - Izmir, Turkey.
Six-year-old Asian elephant Winner, bought by the Ýzmir Metropolitan Municipality from Israel after the death of the city's well-known elephant Bahadýr, has easily adapted to his new home. Winner is also happy with the hospitality of young female landlord elephant Begümcan. At the first meeting of Winner and Begümcan without barriers, the new couple seemed happy.
2008-08-06 - Knoxville, United States.
The Knoxville Zoo is seeking a qualified person to fill an opening in the elephant department. The Knoxville Zoo currently houses 1.2 African Elephants. The females are managed in free contact and the male is managed in protected contact. We need a dependable, trustworthy, and very team oriented individual who will be able to work in a fast paced, progressive program. Elephant experience not required but it is preferred. A high school diploma or equivalent is required, a college degree in a rela...
2008-08-05 - Syracuse, United States.
An Asian elephant on loan from an upstate New York zoo has given birth in Canada to the first third-generation calf born in North America, zoo officials said Tuesday. The 235-pound male was born July 15 at the African Lion Safari in Cambridge, Ontario, home to North America's most successful Asian elephant breeding program, with more second-generation captive births than any other North American institution. The calf is the twelfth elephant born at African Lion Safari since 1991.
2008-08-05 - Jakarta, Indonesia.
Indonesian villagers threatened on Tuesday to poison rare wild elephants that are destroying their palm oil plantations in search of food. "The residents are so angry and have said they will put poison around the plantation areas to kill the elephants unless officials take quick action," said Jambo Dalem village chief Teungku Baili. He said he had warned officials in Trumon Timur district of Sumatra's Aceh province, but nothing had been done to protect the plantations. A herd of eight elephants ...
2008-08-04 - Dak Lak, Vietnam.
Seven members of Y Ngo’s family in the central province of Dak Lak depend on one hectare of farmland. But their farm is all but destroyed, damaged by severe drought and wild elephants. “The area they trample destroys 10 times more than what they eat and there is no way rice can survive being stepped on by elephants,” said Ngo, a farmer in Ba Na Village of Ia J’loi Commune in the province’s Ea Sup District.
2008-08-04 - Dublin, Ireland.
AN UNPRECEDENTED baby boom at Dublin Zoo is set to draw a record one million visitors this year for the first time in the zoo's 177-year history. A total of 905,000 people entered the Phoenix Park attraction in 2007, but the patter of heavy feet has boosted interest among families and schools so far in 2008. The past year has seen the arrival of two young giraffes, a white rhino baby and a Californian sea lion calf. In coming weeks the veritable animal creche is expected to see the arrival of a ...
2008-08-03 - Raipur, India.
A seven-year-old girl was trampled to death by a wild tusker in a forested stretch in Chhattisgarh, taking to eight the number of people killed by rogue elephants since June. Villagers have held demonstrations to demand that the wild elephants be hunted down. The latest casualty was reported late Saturday in Korba districts Karatala block when the girl along with her parents was gathering wood in the jungle. She was killed by a tusker.
2008-08-03 - Birmingham, United States. Mark Hughes
It's easy to sometimes forget, even if we believe we think green, that we share the planet with those who really live in the green. You can't forget at the Birmingham Zoo. And yes, there will be elephants, a bachelor herd of four to six pachyderms. 'A majority of the spread will be for the elephants,' said Jamie Adcock, the zoo's marketing manager. The zoo's long-lived elephant inhabitants, Susie and Mona, died in recent years. The incoming bull elephants will be a different experience from the ...
2008-08-03 - Washington, United States. Michael E. Ruane
The Asian elephants at the National Zoo have it nice. Every morning they get bathed and scrubbed. They often get pedicures, and step up on the scale to have their weight checked. Then they go outside to the oohs and ahhs of the adoring public. Now life is about to get even better. In March, the zoo began work on a $60 million renovation of its elephant complex, announced two years ago, that will transform it into a state-of-the-art sanctuary called Elephant Trails.
2008-08-02 - Lake Geneva, United States.
A half-hour from Milwaukee, the 135-foot-deep Lake Geneva ranks as the second-deepest lake in Wisconsin. During the late 1800s, the Barnum & Bailey Circus wintered in the area, and when one of the performing elephants died, practicality ruled. A hole was cut in the ice of nearby Delavan Lake, and the elephant was buried below.
2008-08-02 - Dallas, United States. Ana Ley
Jenny the elephant lazily poked her trunk into a bucket of fruit as her keepers at the Dallas Zoo hosed her during her morning bath, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she could soon be shipped far from her home of 22 years. She's also certainly unaware of the debate her possible departure has stirred. Zoo officials plan to send Jenny, who became the zoo's lone elephant when her companion died in May, to a drive-through wildlife park in Mexico because African elephants become unhappy when left...
2008-08-02 - Vallejo, United States.
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom is seeking qualified applicants for a full time Elephant Trainer. These elephants are managed in a free contact system. Trainer responsibilities include but are not limited to participation in animal training programs, daily care and feeding of the elephants in the collection, maintenance of the elephant exhibit and night house, behavioral observations, record keeping, animals enrichment and training, public presentations, elephant rides and operation of farm equipmen...
2008-08-01 - Houston, United States. Brad Woodard
On one occasion, our cameras spotted elephants being housed in a metal trailer on a sweltering summer afternoon. The trailer appeared to have an air conditioner, but it was unclear whether it was running. Then on a second visit, 11 News spotted the elephants outside and under an awning. The heat index was in the triple digits and the elephants appeared to be restrained by their legs. The circus manager said the elephant’s trainer is Will Davenport, but he was not available to talk to 11 News. ...
2008-08-01 - Knoxville, United States. LaSaundra Brown
A little pre-game pep talk still may not ease the nerves of the big orange players, who are getting ready to play one of their toughest games ever. "I've never been around somebody who was bigger than me," offensive tackle William Brimfield says. He's referring to elephants Edie and Jana, who together weigh more than 17,000 pounds. "They make an awesome offensive line," Knoxville Zoo Elephant Curator Jim Naelitz says. The elephants have been preparing for their match up against the star Vol play...
2008-08-01 - Topeka, United States.
It's easy for everyone to get in on recycling, even elephants. With a toss of a phone book, Mayor Bill Bunten kicked off a recycling event at the Topeka Zoo today. It's called "Even an Elephant Doesn't Forget to Recycle Old Phone Books." The elephants recycled phone books by creating works of art on them. Children and their families came out to enjoy the show and all helped recycle old AT&T phone books. Some of the works of art will be auctioned off at an event tonight. You can see the elephants...
2008-08-01 - Lake Buena Vista, United States. Dewayne Bevil
Today's Calendar column revolves around the elephants of Disney's Animal Kingdom. You'll recall that the herd expanded in June with the birth of Tsavo, who weighed in at a whopping 327 pounds, the largest of the DAK baby elephants. When interviewing John Lehnhardt, who oversees animal care at Animal Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom Lodge, I asked him if he -- or anyone, for that matter -- can tell when an elephant is happy. "If they're acting like elephants -- getting along with others, eating nor...
When African elephant Tsavo was born this summer at Disney's Animal Kingdom, two pachyderm families were already in place to welcome the 327-pound calf. Five years ago, his mother, Moyo, gave birth to Tufani, a built-in brother for Tsavo, who shares his name with a region of Kenya. He'll have playmates from other breeding groups, which is how the animals divide themselves in the wild -- and at Animal Kingdom. "They live very highly socialized existences," says John Lehnhardt, animal operations d...
2008-08-01 - JERUSALEM, Israel.
Israeli officials say a 17-year-old girl who sneaked into a zoo near Tel Aviv with a friend was attacked by an elephant and hospitalized. An employee of Safari nature park says the couple entered the park before dawn Friday by climbing over a wall and then entering the elephants' enclosure. Mori Hertzenstein told Army Radio the girl then approached the pen of 1 of the male elephants, who grabbed her with his trunk. Hertzenstein said "the elephant, which is a giant animal, hurt her." Israeli resc...
2008-08-01 - Washington, United States.
African elephants are being slaughtered for their ivory at a pace unseen since an international ban on the ivory trade took effect in 1989. But the public outcry that resulted in that ban is absent today, and a University of Washington conservation biologist contends it is because the public seems to be unaware of the giant mammals' plight.
2008-08-01 - Bangalore, India. Kamala Balachandran, Deccan Herald
It is said that in his lifetime Veerappan killed hundreds of elephants and made enormous profit from the tusks. So now that he is gone, are the elephants in the Nilgiris Mountains safe? No, because, in the place of Veerappan there are perhaps, many more, equally audacious, poachers on the prowl. And if there is one thing that anyone can say for sure, it is that there will never be a day when we can say that the last of the poachers is dead. That is because there will never be a day when people w...
2008-07-31 - Windhoek, Namibia. JOHN GROBLER
SERIOUS alarm has been raised over official plans to shoot three of Namibia's rare desert-adapted elephant bulls in the Kunene Region as trophies for big-game hunters, which conservationists fear could cause a collapse in their dwindling numbers. The permits for shooting what could be three of only five breeding-age elephant bulls left were issued in spite of warnings that this was unsustainable in a population that already showed alarming signs of high natural mortality and genetic problems due...
2008-07-31 - North Bengal, India.
For the fourth time in a week a man was trampled to death by an elephant near the Buxa Tiger Reserve in north Bengal.65-year-old Edward Lakra was returning home late on Sunday night (July 28). As he walked alone through the forest adjoining Kartick Tea Estate he was attacked and killed. Over the last eight days, three other tea workers have been killed in three separate incidents. On July 24, Bhab Younus Toppo (45) of Rydak Tea Estate, on July 23, Rabin Sangma (28) of Garam Basti and on July 21,...
2008-07-31 - Hatipota, India.
In the Hatipota forest of Buxa Tiger Reserve in north Bengal, a female elephant was killed by a tusker on Monday. It occurred when a fight took place among some male elephants and in the meanwhile, a tusker gored a female elephant to death. IN A RARE attack of passion, a female elephant was killed by a tusker on Monday night (July 28) in the Hatipota forest of Buxa Tiger Reserve in north Bengal. Two male elephants from the herd of wild elephants seen in the neighbourhood had been pursuing the fe...
2008-07-31 - Pittsburgh, United States.
The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium announced the name of its second baby elephant today. The baby, born on July 25th, has been named Zuri. "We saw our visitors coming in to the barn and they would say, 'Oh, she's beautiful,' or 'Oh, she's pretty,' or 'Oh, she's gorgeous,' and she is actually a little bit of a pink coloration," said the zoo's Dr. Barbara Baker, "and so the staff went into books and looked up what was Swahili or African for 'pretty' and 'beautiful' and came up with the name Zuri."
2008-07-31 - LAKE BUENA VISTA, United States. Andrea Finger, Walt Disney World
Disney’s Animal Programs is leading an international coalition of veterinarians, conservation groups, zoos, universities and private industry to conduct a series of procedures to effectively sterilize male elephants and help reduce the elephant birth rates in areas of South Africa. The team expects to perform laparoscopic vasectomies on eight bull elephants at the Pongola Game Reserve in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. Elephant overpopulation in wildlife parks and reserves in southern Africa is ...
2008-07-31 - Seattle, United States. Lisa Stiffler
The number of poached elephants is on the rise and could lead to the extinction of large populations of African elephants in a scant 12 years, according to new research from the University of Washington. Said Sam Wasser, a UW biology professor, in a press release: "If the trend continues, there won't be any elephants except in fenced areas with a lot of enforcement to protect them."Wasser is a master of DNA extraction from difficult sources such as ivory and various animal scat. Through his rese...
2008-07-31 - Mangalore, India.
Pilikula Nisargadhama, located at Vamanjoor in the outskirts of the city, will be getting two elephants soon. This initiative has been taken to attract more tourists to Pilikula. Rajendra and Kapile, who are at Sakrebail elephant camp which is located in Shimoga district, will be brought here soon. Earlier, Rajendra was staying in the premises of Kollur temple. But his mischievous activities proved to be a headache for the temple management there. Later he was sent to Sakrebail camp. Rajendra di...
2008-07-31 - Washington, United States. Kristen Everett, Press Releases, The Humane Society of the United States
The Humane Society of the United States and its international arm Humane Society International has a list of do's and don'ts for those traveling to China, where tourist souvenirs and some meals involve cruelty to animals. Teresa Telecky, Ph.D., policy director for Humane Society International, offers the following tips to help those wishing to make animal-friendly decisions while in China: Don't buy ivory. During a recent trip to China, Telecky saw ivory for sale widely, even in hotel gift shops...
2008-07-31 - Orlando, United States.
Maintain the care, well-being, management, behavioral conditioning and enrichment of the elephant collection. Ensure the daily routines of cleaning, animal observation, diet preparation and reporting medical needs and abnormal conditions to zoological managers. The keeper is also responsible for maintaining daily records, collecting and logging information and insuring this information is communicated to management and the central record keeping system of Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
2008-07-30 - Lansing, United States.
Potter Park Zoo will host guest speaker Dr. Susan Mikota, co-editor of Biology, Medicine, and Surgery of Elephants and co-founder and Director of Veterinary Programs and Research of Elephant Care International at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 in the zoo’s Safari Room. The presentation is free and open to the public.
2008-07-30 - Mumbai, India.
The state government has mooted a plan to put up a fence with electric current at the Maharashtra, Goa-Karnataka border to overcome the increasing menace of elephants in the state. At a meeting held in Mantralaya on Tuesday, revenue minister Narayan Rane suggested a fence that will work on solar energy to stop elephants from entering the Konkan region. The meeting was attended by the state finance minister Jayant Patil and forest minister Babanrao Pachpute as well as other officials from the for...
2008-07-30 - Dac Lac, Vietnam.
A herd of 40 elephants over the past few days destroyed over 30 hectares of crops in Ea R’loi and Ea Lop Village in the Central Highlands province of Dac Lac. According to Ea R’Loi’s People’s Committee, the animals have been showing up in the area since 2005. They usually roam around, destroying crops in the process, for a few days before leaving. No casualities were reported.
2008-07-30 - Chennai, United States. D Madhavan
Started barely a fortnight ago with much fanfare, the jumbo safari at the Arignar Anna Zoological park, Vandalur, has come to a halt. The two elephants used for the rides were injured in the foot a few days ago. Compounding the problem, 24-year-old Ashwini and 26-year-old Pari who were brought from the Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary are suffering from diarrhoea. Zoo director Ananthaswamy told The Times of India that the over-growth of nails on the toes and infection between them that was aggravate...
2008-07-29 - Maryland, United States. Chelsea Haddaway
"I honestly never expected to work with elephants, and I never gave them a whole lot of thought. I have a bachelor's in biology, and when I was studying I put a lot of my focus on animal behavior and physiology. I worked in a small state park-run zoo in North Carolina the whole time I was in college. After school I came up to Baltimore and worked in the animal department. There was an opportunity in elephants and I found out that it was something that suited my personality and just stuck with it...
2008-07-29 - Nairobi, Kenya. Isaac Ongiri
The decision by a global arbiter on endangered species to allow China to import backlog stock of ivory from Africa may be the death knell for Kenyan elephants. The lives of the country’s more than 40,000 elephants spread across national parks is now on the line. Sitting in Geneva, Switzerland, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) ruled that China and Japan would buy 108 tonnes of ivory stocks in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Namibia.
2008-07-29 - Trivandrum, India. T. K. Devasia
After the gruelling festival season, its time for complete rest, feasts and rejuvenation for captive elephants in Kerala. Elephant owners, especially temples, have begun the annual sukhachikitsa (ayurvedic rejuvenation therapy) for their elephants that were paraded from temple to temple from March without rest. The sukhachikitsa for elephants attached to temples under the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) commenced in the state capital Trivandrum yesterday. Forty elephants under various temples in...
2008-07-29 - Raipur, India.
A rogue elephant that has killed eight people and caused widespread damage in Chhattisgarh's Jashpur district is to be hunted - with tranquiliser gun - the state government announced after affected villagers started a road blockade. "We are forced to order that the rogue elephant be hunted as it has killed eight people and caused widespread damage to property in the past one year," O.P. Yadav, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Jashpur, said on Tuesday.
2008-07-29 - Cheraw, United States. Bob Cline
The Gentry Bros. began their operation in 1887 as Professor Gentry's Canine Paradox. In a couple years the show had grown to two seperate units called Professor Gentry's Famous Dog & Pony Show. They bought their first elephant in 1890 which broke it's leg being unloaded and was euthanized immediately. 8 years later they bought a baby elephant again and named it Pinto. Same thing happened again. In 1899 they again bought another Indian female elephant and named her Pinto again. This was the first...
2008-07-29 - Dallas, United States. JOANNA CATTANACH and ANGELA KOCHERGA
Plans to move the Dallas Zoo's lone elephant to the Africam Safari Park by the end of the year are still on track, director Gregg Hudson said Tuesday after a tour of the facility in Puebla, Mexico. But Jenny's future is apparently not yet certain. Mr. Hudson met with the director of the driving zoo, Amy Camacho, and a team of elephant specialists who would take care of Jenny, a Dallas Zoo fixture for 22 years. "I've been impressed with the facilities that we've seen and the expansion that they'r...
2008-07-28 - NONG NUCH , Thailand.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Sattahip district and Nong Nuch Village organized a "Larb Cooking" competition in Northern and Northeastern style. Two intelligent female elephants, "Pang Morakot" and "Pang Christmas", also joined in to show how to do Larb Cooking. On July 27th, 2008, Mr. Kampol Tansatja, Director of Nong Nuch Village, Na-Jomtien, assigned Mr.Manit Narinrak, Deputy General Manager, to organize a competition of Larb Cooking to promote traditional foods and tourism.
2008-07-28 - Kampala, Uganda. Patience Aber
The Police and army have launched a joint operation to drive back 35 stary elephants from Amuru District to Murchison Falls National Park. "We have embarked on an operation to drive elephants straying in Kochgoma and Alero sub-counties in Amuru district back to their conservation area in Murchison Falls National Park," UPDF northern region spokesperson Capt Ronald Kakurungu said last Tuesday in a statement. The elephants recently crossed over into the new district. Capt. Kakurungu said they are ...
2008-07-26 - Mendon, United States. Tanya Girgenrath
It's not uncommon for a groom to include his sister in his wedding party. The story becomes significantly more unique when you find out his "sister" is an elephant. Joshua Schacht, 22, and Ashley Glass, 18, were married last night at Mendon's Southwick Zoo in a wildly entertaining ceremony. Dondi, a female Asian elephant, served as the flower girl in the couple's wedding, but that wasn't her only job. The ceremony began, amidst whispers of amazement from the crowd, when the couple mounted the el...
2008-07-26 - Kerala, India.
elephants are now walking a fashion ramp with a difference, providing their footprints to be printed on textile carry bags of New York-based fashion designer Barbara Gerard, who is here getting her models to perform. Gerard is at this cultural capital of Kerala to also introduce a new concept for children called “Elephant House”. She said her concept was an innovative exploration of the Asian elephant involving the six senses as seen through the lens of video, film, painting, photography, mu...
2008-07-25 - RANCHI, India.
The Jharkhand forest department will constitute mobile squads to chase away wild elephants who create havoc in villages around the forests in the state, said an official on Thursday. "As per plan, we will constitute 15 mobile squads equipped with weapons and cell phones to chase the elephant herds," a forest official said. Each squad, expected to be constituted by the year end, is likely to have 10 to 15 members including villagers and forest officials. The squads are likely to start functioning...
2008-07-25 - Dallas, United States. Andy Hogue
A pachyderm in the public eye in Dallas could possibly be joining the elephant Gainesville never forgot, that is, if animal rights advocates have their way. Jenny the Elephant, a resident of the Dallas Zoo, has been the subject of many news stories following the death of her partner, KeKe, in May. Animal rights groups are concerned that Jenny, age 32 (and near the elephant's life expectancy in captivity of 33), would not be healthy in a zoo, and that she should be transferred to a wilderness pre...
2008-07-25 - Pittsburgh , United States.
A baby elephant was born at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium at 5:30 this morning. The baby and its 25-yer-old mother, Moja, are healthy and bonding well, zoo officials said. It’s the second successful birth of an elephant at the zoo this month. On July 9, Savannah, another 25-year-old African elephant, gave birth to a female. The zoo has not named that elephant, which weighed more than 200 pounds at birth.
2008-07-25 - Buffalo, United States. Tom Buckham
Buki is taking full advantage of new privileges accorded the queen of the Buffalo Zoo’s remodeled Elephant House. Last week, during one of her first nights back after two months at the Columbus Zoo, the 50-year-old Asian elephant poked through the bars and snatched a bale of hay keepers believed was beyond her grasp. “I thought there was no way she could reach that far,” said Kelly Amrhein, Elephant House manager.
2008-07-25 - New Delhi, India. Anand Sankar
It is a lonely and forlorn trudge for Bhola, Gangaram, Gulabu and their comrades —Delhi’s captive elephants — as they daily haul themselves from under the ITO Bridge at dawn, on the banks of the Yamuna cesspool. They plod through a city that does not bat an eyelid for them, to carry a groom at his wedding, or offer joyrides to tourists at a star hotel, all for Rs 2,000. Their day begins before the bedlam of the city’s roads and ends well after it, thanks to the traffic police. And the ma...
2008-07-24 - Buffalo, United States. Jane Kwiatkowski
Long time no see, Buki! You, too, Surapa and Jothi! From 10 a. m. to 3:30 p. m. Saturday and Sunday, party with the elephants at The Buffalo Zoo. Practice elephant art, ask a trainer the million-dollar question, and scarf down some Perry’s ice cream. All activities included with admission at the grand house of animals, 300 Parkside Ave.
2008-07-24 - Hamburg, Germany.
Can I get a bucket of coffee with that? Just what the elephants at the Hamburg Zoo need -- pasteries.