2005-12-31 - Nairobi, Kenya.
The burial of a man killed by a rogue elephant in Kenya`s Tausa village on the country`s border with Tanzania, was Thursday disrupted by a herd of marauding jumbos, that invaded the ceremony forcing hundreds of mourners and residents to flee the scene. Kenyan news agency (KNA) reported that Haggai Kisombe, 79, who was trampled to death by the elephant last Friday while grazing cattle, was later buried after the charging jumbos had left the scene.
2005-12-31 - Surin, Thailand.
Bring the Elephant HOME, a Dutch organization founded by Antoinette van de Water has started her education tour. Together with two elephants the "elephant rescue team," which consists of 8 people, will make their way through the heart of Thailand (including Ayuthaya, Lopburi and Sukhothai). The group will stay at temples and hold workshops at local primary schools. Showing the beauty of the elephants and the Thai culture the team hopes to raise awareness about the importance of nature conservati...
2005-12-31 - Thiruvananthapuram, India.
Kerala is still waiting for the central ministry of environment and forests to give the go-ahead for an international training centre for mahouts on the lines of similar ones in Thailand and Germany. The proposal for such a centre has been hanging fire for a year, says veteran elephant expert Jacob Cheeran. "It has been a longstanding demand for an international centre in India, similar to that in Thailand and Hamburg in Germany. Initially, it was to come up in Tamil Nadu but a year back this wa...
2005-12-29 - Theni, India.
In a bid to prevent wild elephants from damaging adjoining horticultural and agricultural fields near reserve forests in this district, the Tamil Nadu forest department is planning to raise elephant delicacies, including bamboo grass, in about 150 acres in the area. It was also planed to dig a two-km long ditch along the elephant path leading to the farms to divert them and prevent them from destroying crops, an official of the department told reporters here today.
2005-12-28 - DINOKENG, South Africa. Ed Stoddard
Tembo was a killer who faced the death sentence for his "crimes." But the six-tonne bull elephant won a reprieve after a vet approached animal trainer Rory Hensman and asked him if he could mend Tembo's wild ways. Now tourists are taking rides on Tembo's back in the bush at Dinokeng Game Reserve 100 km (60 miles) northeast of Johannesburg -- proving that grown elephants can learn new tricks.
2005-12-28 - DHARMAPURI, India.
Three farmers were injured when a herd of elephants chased them at Elumalmanthai in Pennagarm taluk on Tuesday. According to police, the elephants entered the farmlands at Elumalmanthai in the wee hours of Tuesday. The farmers chased the herd carrying fire torch and bursting crackers into the forest. But all of sudden, the pachyderms started chasing the farmers, injuring three persons - Shanmugam (40), Murugan (45) and Arumugam (35).
2005-12-28 - PHILADELPHIA, United States. Robert Strauss
Some things haven't changed at the Philadelphia Zoo, America's oldest, founded in 1874. It is still open every day and, for the time being, it still has elephants. But in Philadelphia, as in zoos around the country, the question of whether elephants should be kept at all zoos -- or maybe even any zoo -- has almost abruptly become a sensitive one.
2005-12-27 - Hwange, Zimbabwe.
Life-giving rains have brought temporary relief to the thirst-crazed animals of Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe after a fierce drought which left the park littered with shrunken, rotting corpses. Pinetown conservationist John Davison, who has just returned from the park, said many dams and water pans were full to the brim again after nearly 230 mm of rain fell in less than a month.
2005-12-26 - Toronto, Canada.
Scientists have sequenced part of the genome of a woolly mammoth that died 28,000 years ago, a discovery that raises the possibility of bringing the extinct ice age mammals back from the dead. Hendrik Poinar, a molecular evolutionary geneticist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, says ancient DNA obtained from the jawbone of a long-dead Siberian woolly mammoth could be used to create a modern version.
2005-12-26 - Hudson, New Hampshire, United States. Scott Menns
Bensons Wild Animal Farm was founded in 1924 by John T. Benson. Benson was a famous wild animal trainer for circuss and Hollywood. He bought some land in what was then Hudson Centre (now Hudson), and started a wild animal farm and training business. In 1943, John Benson died and the park was purchased by a group of Benson's executives.
2005-12-25 - SAN ANDREAS, California, United States. ELLEN CREAGER
Wanda trundled down the hill from the elephant barn to meet her elephant friend, Annie. Then she drank from a pond. Then she wandered all by herself down a path to lie in the grass and snooze. The humans, when they came back from a walk, could not see her.
2005-12-25 - Assam, India. Jay Mazoomdaar
Manbahadur Vishwakarma is too soft-spoken a man for his profession. Sitting next to a pile of sickles, swords and kukris, the village blacksmith of Kalamati, in upper Assam, closes his eyes and touches his forehead before breaking into a muffled monotone: ‘‘Ganesh baba takes this alley to the village in the night. I peep through my door and pray: ‘Spare me and my hut, Ganesh baba, I never harmed you or anybody else’.’’ Till now, his prayers have been answer...
2005-12-24 - Sydney, Australia. Andrew Darby
Final approval for the controversial importation of eight Asian elephants to the Melbourne and Sydney zoos is being withheld in a wrangle over the animals' new living conditions. The zoos claimed victory in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal last month against welfare groups that opposed the importation from Thailand.
2005-12-23 - Samburu, Kenya. Philip Mbaji and Michuki Ngamau
Kinango legislator Gonzi Rai wants the Kenya Wildlife Service to drive elephants out of the newly created Kinango District. Speaking in Samburu Town, Rai said the elephants were partly to blame for the famine facing his constituents. "The Government must drive these beasts back to their habitats because they have been disrupting our operations as they cause panic and worry, which has led to famine," he said.
2005-12-23 - Chiang Mai, Thailand.
In the northern province of Chiang Mai, the MAE SA (à¹à¸¡à¹ˆà¸ªà¸²) elephant home has acquired a new member; a male baby elephant. The baby elephant is the 2nd to be born this year to the elephant home, and the 13th to be born in the MAE SA elephant nursery project initiated in 1998.
2005-12-23 - Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.
African Lion Safari announced the birth of a healthy 242 pound, female Asian elephant on November 4, 2005. The calf was born to 11-year-old elephant Natasha after a 21 month pregnancy. The newborn is the first calf for both Natasha and father Rex. The calf has been lovingly named "Opal" - as she is considered a jewel among the park's herd of eleven elephants. The herd of ten other elephants are thrilled to welcome the new addition.
2005-12-23 - Pittsburgh, United States.
Jackson, the 27-year-old, 11,000-pound bull elephant who lives at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, became a father again on Monday. Donna, an elephant at Disney's Animal Kingdom, gave birth to a 233-pound female calf conceived two years ago with Jackson. The calf is doing well, according to Disney officials. The new calf is the fourth of Jackson's offspring.
2005-12-23 - USTI NAD LABEM, Czech Republic.
The zoological garden in Usti nad Labem may become a new home for one or two elephants from "an elephant orphanage" in Sri Lanka, zoo veterinarian Vaclav Pozivil has told CTK. The elephants are to be a gift from the Sri Lankan government to the Czech Republic for its aid to remove the consequences of the natural disaster that hit this southeast Asian country last December.
2005-12-22 - Auckland, New Zealand.
OHSU, New Zealand study says exact molecular mixture in male-emitted pheromone during musth period dictates other elephants' interest. The exact chemical blend of a pheromone emitted by older male elephants in musth influences both a female elephant's interest in mating and how other surrounding elephants behave, a new study has found.
2005-12-21 - New Delhi, India. Gopal Sathe
Elephants at the Delhi Zoo are restless these days because of overcrowding, say zoo authorities. Zoo veterinarian Dr M Paneerselvam said the elephant enclosure has been facing a space crunch in the last two months as four elephants rescued from illegal ownership by the Wildlife Department have been transferred here.
2005-12-21 - San Antonio, TX, United States.
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 drivers ...
2005-12-21 - TAIPING, Malaysia.
An elephant calf was born in the Taiping Zoo on Saturday morning. Weighing 70kg, the calf was found by zoo keepers, suckling milk from Jaya, her 14-year-old mother, "Maybe we will call her Larut 2," said Taiping Zoo and Night Safari director Dr Kevin Lazarus. The calf’s sister, Larut, died 20 months ago of a bacterial infection at the age of 19 months, which left Jaya depressed for several months, Dr Lazarus said.
2005-12-20 - BRISTOL, United Kingdom.
Folk lore has it elephants can get drunk by eating fermented fruit rotting on the ground, but a study debunks that claim, despite "eyewitness" accounts. The study, to appear in the March-April issue of the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, says anecdotes of drunken elephants go back more than a century. Steve Morris, a biologist at the University of Bristol in England and a co-author of the study told National Geographic News, "People just want to believe in drunken elephants."
2005-12-20 - CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh. Nazimuddin Shaymol
Asian elephant numbers are falling because of deforestation, road-building and expansion of farmlands and plans to protect remaining populations are crucial, wildlife experts meeting in Bangladesh said. The South Asian wildlife experts concluded a two-day meeting in southern Bangladesh on Tuesday with an agreement for joint collaboration to protect elephants, whose numbers across Asia are now 60,000, down from 150,000 two decades ago.
2005-12-20 - Bangalore, India.
Researchers in India and from The Earth Institute at Columbia University have discovered that one of the few remaining populations of Asian elephants in India is actually two genetically distinct groups. The results of the study, which appear in the current issue of the journal Animal Conservation, could have far-reaching implications in conservation plans for the endangered elephants as well as other species on the Subcontinent.
2005-12-19 - Manas National Park, India.
Challenging the view that it is a trying task to control let alone train the earth's largest land mammal, Prabati Barua, an Assamese woman has been training elephants for the last decade at the Manas National Park in the state. Since her childhood, Parbati was interested in contributing to the cause of endangered elephants in some way. Today her childhood dream has come true. She is the only professional elephant trainer in her region and is eager to save the animal.
2005-12-19 - PHILADELPHIA, United States.
A grassroots organization is trying to convince the Philadelphia Zoo to send its elephants to a sanctuary where they will have more living space. Friends of the Philly Zoo Elephants this week took a petition drive to the Gallery, a downtown shopping mall. "The issue is heating up, and we think if we can get enough publicity, the zoo will do the right thing and send the elephants to the sanctuary," said Rowan Morrison, a member of the group. "The zoos don't have enough space."
2005-12-19 - New South Wales, Australia.
As part of the redevelopment of the Zoological Parks Board of NSW, Taronga Zoo is looking for experienced Elephant Keeper/Trainers to oversee the introduction and ongoing management of the Elephant Management program at Taronga and Western Plains Zoos.
2005-12-18 - Borneo, Indonesia.
The same satellite system used by the U.S. military to track vehicle convoys in Iraq is helping World Wildlife Fund shed light on the little-known world of pygmy elephants in Borneo. This week marks the six-month anniversary of the first pygmy elephant's being captured and outfitted with a collar that can send GPS locations to WWF daily via satellite. Now, for the first time, the public can track the movements of the elephants online through an interactive web map at www.worldwildlife.org/borneo...
2005-12-18 - Leipzig, Germany. Krause J, Dear PH, Pollack JL, Slatkin M, Spriggs H, Barnes I, Lister AM, Ebersberger I, Paabo S, Hofreiter M. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
Our phylogenetic analyses show that the mammoth was more closely related to the Asian than to the African elephant. However, the divergence of mammoth, African and Asian elephants occurred over a short time, corresponding to only about 7% of the total length of the phylogenetic tree for the three evolutionary lineages.
2005-12-17 - San Jose, United States.
A star circus performer will rivet outraged animal lovers today when he goes on trial in San Jose for allegedly gouging an elephant with a hooked stick. While critics have long protested that circus animals endure miserable confinement and painful handling and training, the trial of Mark Oliver Gebel, an elephant handler at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, is a rare criminal prosecution.
2005-12-16 - Louisville, United States. Joseph Gerth
If it's true that elephants never forget, yesterday will be one to remember for pachyderms in Louisville. The Metro Council voted last night to allow elephant rides to resume at circuses in the city, despite pleas from animal-rights activists. The ordinance was adopted 17-4 and could open the door for the Kosair Shriners to resume the rides at the group's annual circus in February, if it can comply with the ordinance's requirements.
2005-12-15 - LOS ANGELES, United States.
The three elephants at Los Angeles Zoo — Gita, Ruby and Billy — need three times more space than their current quarters but it comes with a price tag of $50 million, according to a report on the future of pachyderms at the zoo. The independent report was commissioned by Los Angeles' new mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, after years of debate about the keeping of elephants in captivity at the city-owned zoo.
2005-12-14 - Tokyo, Japan.
A male elephant knocked out a keeper with one of his tusks at a zoo in central Tokyo in what may have been a hormone-driven frenzy, the zoo master said Tuesday. Attie, a 2.2-ton (2.4-U.S. ton) Asian bull at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, struck his keeper Yutaka Kawaharabayashi in the forehead on Tuesday morning, zoo master Teruyuki Komiya told reporters.
2005-12-14 - HARARE, Zimbabwe.
Crocodiles dragged away and ate 13 people -- including children -- in the first 10 months of 2005, elephants charged and trampled 12 others, including some villagers trying to protect their crops from the giant herbivores, according to the Communal Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources, known as Campfire, in its annual report.
2005-12-14 - Jashipur, Orissa, India.
On Monday, 12 December, 64 kg of ivory and two motor cycles used by the ivory traders were seized and four people arrested by police at Jashipur in Mayurbhanj District of Orissa with the assistance of the Wildlife Protection Society of India. Two months ago, WPSI received information that a group of traders in Orissa had stockpiled the ivory. Subsequent investigations were passed on to the police that resulted in the seizure.
2005-12-13 - Sambalpur, India.
Dukhu Adabar (55) of Jharapada under Rairakhol police station, 80 km from here, died on Tuesday after being crushed by a herd of elephants. It is learnt that a number of elephants entered the village Jharapada. But villagers managed to drive them away with flames and fire crackers. The elephants returned without harming the villagers. However, on their way back to the nearby forest, they found Dukhu alone and crushed him to death.
2005-12-13 - Beijing, China. Meera Selva
Across China, new shops are opening for hundreds of thousands to buy items that only a generation ago were beyond their reach. Ivory is one of them. "On a recent visit to China, I found twice as many shops selling ivory products than I saw only a few years ago," said Esmond Martin, a conservationist who has tracked the global ivory trade. Chinese companies are making their mark, building roads in Ethiopia, buying up the Sudan's oil and relaunching Sierra Leone's tourism industry.
2005-12-10 - Jerusalem, Israel. YAAKOV KATZ
A two year pregnancy and a 10-hour birth process made Israeli history on Saturday when a baby elephant was born at the Jerusalem Tisch Family Zoological Gardens after being conceived through artificial insemination. The male baby - who has yet to be named - was born to Tamar a Thai elephant brought to Israel ten years ago as a gift from the Thai government to then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. Saturday's birth was one of 10 births around the world of an elephant conceived through artificial inse...
2005-12-09 - Mae Ping, Thailand. Jan McGirk
They are scarred by years of abuse. Their forest domain has shrunk, and their numbers along with it. But one woman has taken on the task of protecting the animals Thailand once held sacred. Lek Chailert flings slices of sweet white bread into the maw of a frisky five-year-old male elephant she calls Hope, whom she has hand-reared from babyhood. Hope loudly kisses her cheeks and lips with his trunk.
2005-12-09 - HCM City, Vietnam.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Forestry Department is building three elephant reservations in a bid to save the mammal from extinction. The move is amidst the fact that the number of elephants in Viet Nam, one of the 13 Asian countries, where elephants habitat, has fallen dramatically over two and a half decades.
2005-12-09 - Phoenix, United States. Katie Ruark
You wouldn't know it by looking at them, and it's certainly not something you'd see on the sign in front of their exhibit, but the Phoenix Zoo's elephants all have storied pasts. All three of the zoo's Asian elephants are former circus animals with at least one incident of hurting someone. Reba, the zoo's most aggressive elephant, killed a Ringling Brothers trainer in 1993 when she knocked him down and stepped on him.
They are scarred by years of abuse. Their forest domain has shrunk, and their numbers along with it. But one woman has taken on the task of protecting the animals Thailand once held sacred. Lek flings slices of sweet white bread into the maw of a frisky five-year-old male elephant she calls Hope, whom she has hand-reared from babyhood. Hope loudly kisses her cheeks and lips with his trunk.
2005-12-08 - Cardiff University, United Kingdom.
The world's smallest elephant species, the newly described Bornean elephant, will be the focus of a Cardiff University study in Sabah, Malaysia for the next three years. The Bornean elephant has recently been confirmed as a separate sub-species, dramatically increasing its importance for biodiversity. Bornean elephants are the world's most endangered member of the elephant family with an estimated 1,100 - 1,500 surviving in the wild.
2005-12-08 - Sydney, Australia.
FIVE Asian elephants could be winging their way to Taronga Zoo as early as Easter after an appeal by animal welfare groups to overturn approval to import the animals from Thailand failed. The long-running saga of the Taronga Five, as the one male and four female elephants have been dubbed, was close to resolution yesterday when the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled, conditional on some improvements to the animals' enclosure, that the elephants could be flown from Thailand, where they have be...
2005-12-07 - Richmond, Illinois, United States. Michael Hartigan
After months of government negotiations to resolve charges of animal mistreatment, nine elephants from The Hawthorn Corp, Richmond, Illinois will pack their trunks and move to the 2,700-acre Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, where they will live in a free-roaming environment.
2005-12-01 - Greenbrier, United States.
Riddle’s Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary has become the first recipient of the Institution of Excellence Award given by the Elephant Managers Association (EMA). Additionally Heidi Riddle was presented with the EMA President’s Award for “Outstanding Service” to the Association. In the past, Heidi has served as President of the EMA, as a member of the Board of Directors and continues to be very involved in helping the organization through her position as Chair of the EMA Legislative Commit...
2005-11-29 - Sonpur, India. Nick Jenkins
IFAW helped micro-chip 77 elephants at the fifth consecutive health camp for captive elephants in partnership with the Bihar Forest Department at Sonpur in the eastern state of Bihar. Between November 12th and 16th, captive elephants from the northern and eastern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam were brought to the five-day long event to be micro-chipped.
2005-11-14 - Fort Worth, United States.
Christmas arrived early for the Fort Worth Zoo when a 5-ton gift arrived not by sleigh and nine tiny reindeer, but by an 18-wheeler featuring a 40-foot, semi-trailer specially designed to safely and comfortably transport elephants. An expert staff from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® Center for Elephant Conservation (CEC) delivered the gift of a 33-year-old bull elephant
2005-11-12 - Mooketsi, South Africa.
A routine training session with elephants at Elephants for Africa Forever (Efaf) in Mooketsi, near Duiwelskloof turned into tragedy for a young foreign student on Saturday November 12, 2005. Will Andrew, spending some of his ‘gap’ year at Efaf, had just returned from a leisure break in the Kruger National Park and was taking part in a training session with four elephants.
2005-11-08 - Pilanesberg, South Africa.
Eight elephants saved from a fire six weeks ago have been taken back to the Pilanesburg National Park in the North West - their place of origin. Wildlife specialists, who nursed the animals, are satisfied with the condition of the elephants. Sixteen elephants were admitted to a sanctuary outside Hamanskraal after being torched in a veldfire. Eight of them, including adults and calves, died at the sanctuary from various complications and trauma related to the burns.
2005-11-07 - Hamburg, Germany.
The First European Elephant Management School is a practical orientated course on different elephant management tactics. Free contact as well as protected contact management technics and procedures will be trained. Hagenbecks Tierpark currently houses eleven Asian elephants of all age groups and with a high training standard. Important elephant management procedures will be taught on and with the animal (e.g. foot trimming, transportation). The School is held in a nine-day-session.
2005-11-04 - KWAZULU-NATAL, South Africa.
A woman was killed when she was an attacked by an elephant in the Charters Creek game lodge in KwaZulu-Natal, lodge spokesperson Tony Conway said on Friday. The 51-year-old woman who worked at the lodge was returning from an operation with four other colleagues when they encountered a herd of elephants on Thursday night.
2005-11-03 - ROSEMONT, United States. Mike Parker
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus is in town, and the show knows it's being watched by animal rights activists, who are opposed to keeping big animals in circuses and zoos. "It doesn't bother me because these people for me, they don't know what they're talking about," said trainer Sacha Houcke.
2005-10-31 - Harare, Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean authorities are considering moving elephants from the country's overburdened national parks to Namibia after at least 50 pachyderms starved to death, a state daily reported on Monday. Some 50 elephants died in separate incidents in the famous Hwange national park in Zimbabwe's dry southwestern region, prompting senior government officials to visit the area to investigate the cause of the deaths.
2005-10-31 - Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Ostracized by her herd, La Petite is looking to pack her trunk and move to a new home. The 19-year-old elephant with a checkered past -- she killed her first baby and is suspected of killing a handler -- failed to fit in at a British zoo, and now is having trouble at an Israeli safari park. Until she can be moved, the former circus performer is isolated from the park's other elephants, and animal rights activists are up in arms.
2005-10-25 - Bangkok, Thailand.
In a strategic move to address the persistent criminal activity targeting South-east Asia's unique biological diversity, representatives from the 10 Member Countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed last week to form a regional law enforcement network to combat the illegal trade in animals and plants.
2005-10-23 - RANCHI, India.
With shrinking forest cover and human encroachment of elephant habitat leading to increasing confrontations between man and pachyderm, the Jharkhand forest department has proposed the use of helicopters to deal with rampaging tuskers in the state. The state's forest officials admitted that they do not have the requisite means to tackle the elephants when they enter human settlements. Hence they have taken a cue from South Africa, where choppers are used to drive tuskers away when they stray into...
2005-10-23 - Pilanesberg, South Africa. Myrtle Ryan
The plight of the elephants burned in runaway fires in the Pilanesberg National Park at the end of last month has captured the hearts of South Africans. This week, as their fate hung in the balance with several calls for them to be humanely put down, a KwaZulu-Natal inventor rushed to their rescue and has literally helped saved their skins. On Thursday, members of the North West Parks and Tourism Board and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals - which has said "where undu...
2005-10-23 - Indianapolis, United States. Diana Penner
Kubwa, the Indianapolis Zoo's 29-year-old, 7,500-pound new mother, and her baby bull are part of science that someday could save the lives of wild elephants. The mother and baby, and the Indianapolis Zoo's other five elephants, all are African elephants, and their cousins are so scarce in some parts of the African continent that they are considered threatened or endangered. But the massive mammals are so abundant in other areas that they have to be culled.
2005-10-23 - Coimbatore, India.
The annual rejuvenation camp for captive and temple elephants in Tamil Nadu would begin at Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park in neighbouring Nilgiris District, from November 21. About 75 elephants were expected to take 'rest' in the camp at Theppakkadu, being organised by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR and CE) for the third year in a row, Forest department sources said here today.
2005-10-22 - New Delhi, India.
Two young elephants, being kept illegally here for use in religious festivals and weddings, have been seized and shifted to Delhi zoo. Acting on information from the Wildlife protection Society of India (WPSI), the Department of Wildlife Preservation (Government of India) and the Delhi Wildlife Department jointly raided two elephant owners in Yamuna Pushta area.
2005-10-22 - Philadelphia, United States. Julie Stoiber
Philadelphia Zoo veterinarians are monitoring Dulary the elephant for kidney-function problems, a side effect of antibiotics she took after being injured in a fight in late summer with stablemate Bette. Doctors are not sure whether the 9,000-pound Asian elephant, who is 41, has a kidney infection or inflammation but have taken her off the medicine thought to have caused the problems, said Andy Baker, senior vice president for animal programs at the zoo.
2005-10-21 - Philadelphia, United States. GLORIA CAMPISI
The pachyderms may be packing it in at the Philadelphia Zoo. Zoo officials could scrap plans for a costly new elephant exhibit within weeks, and decide to send away the zoo's herd. But that decision would have nothing to do with a recent clash between two of the pachyderms that may have blinded the right eye of one of them, they said. Dulary, 41, the zoo's only Asian elephant and the matriarch of the four-elephant herd, suffered a cut on her eyelid in a shoving match with a younger African eleph...
2005-10-21 - JOHANNESBURG, South Africa. Carol Hills
A baby elephant was euthanised in a boma in Hammanskraal on Thursday when its organs failed almost a month after it was severely burnt in a wildfire at the Pilanesberg National Park in September. The elephant had survived on its own in the bush for more than two-and-a-half weeks before being spotted by tourists a week ago and taken to a trauma centre set up in bomas in Hammanskraal.
2005-10-21 - DHARMAPURI, India.
Though the North-East monsoon has brought heavy rainfall in most parts of India, the Dharmapuri district still faces a drought situation. Even forest areas in Dharmapuri are faced with acute water scarcity. Elephants and leopards have been spotted straying into human habitats in search of food and water. A few days ago an elephant herd, which strayed into a farm land in Pennagaram taluk, had damaged the crops there. At Soolagiri in Krishnagiri district, a leopard reportedly attacked villagers an...
2005-10-21 - Bridgeport, United States. Jody Minalgo
Some kids dream of going to outer space. Some kids want to be movie stars. And some kids fantasize about joining the circus. Twenty-five-year-old Mike Hayward was no different. However, unlike the many children who eventually abandon their childhood fantasies, Hayward a native of Southwest England and a lifelong animal lover, made his a reality.
2005-10-20 - Pilanesberg, South Africa. Nipho Magwaza
Two weeks after the outbreak of veld fires in various parts of the country, elephants are still feeling the pain the flames have left them in. Already four elephants which were severely burnt have been put down at the Pilanesberg National Park, near Sun City in the North West Province, and an 18-month-old calf that was severely burnt in the fires died on Sunday.
2005-10-20 - ANN ARBOR, United States. Nancy Ross-Flanigan
Details about the life of a young woolly mammoth that died thousands of years ago are emerging from a study of the animal's fossil tusk. One intriguing finding: the calf nursed from its mother six or more years, apparently depending on the calorie-rich milk to survive in harsh, arctic conditions. A research team from the University of Michigan, Wrangel Island State Preserve and the University of Minnesota will present the results of their tusk analysis Saturday (Oct. 22) at a meeting of the Soci...
2005-10-19 - Tampa, Florida, United States.
Surrounded by the zoos family of elephants, Ellie, a 20-year-old, African elephant at Tampas Lowry Park Zoo gave birth to the male calf before dawn Monday, October 17, in her night house maternity ward. The calf represents the first and only elephant born at Tampas Lowry Park Zoo. Upon arriving at the zoo early Monday, elephant keepers were greeted at the door of the maternity ward by the 205-pound baby elephant already standing on his own.
2005-10-19 - Angul, Orissa, India.
Sarat Pradhan of Burukina village finds it risky to venture out of his home after the sunset as a herd of elephants, not seen in five years, are on prowl in his village. This is the scenario in village Burukina and adjoining 5 villages situated in Samal-Pabitranagar areas in Angul district. All this attributed to the destruction of natural corridors of elephant population across the state, which compels the pachyderms to stray into human habitat areas, wildlife experts said.
2005-10-19 - RIVERSIDE, Calif, South Africa.
Life scientists have long maintained that, based on body size, small organisms are more metabolically active than large organisms. A new study shows that this is true only for organisms that are closely related evolutionarily and have body masses differing by no more than 6-7 orders of magnitude – about the difference in body mass between an elephant and a shrew.
2005-10-18 - Pretoria, South Africa. Hanti Otto
Two elephant calves rescued from the Pilanesberg National Park after a horrendous veld fire in September have died of lung damage from inhaling smoke. A third elephant also has respiratory problems and is being monitored. This elephant has burns over 90% of its body. The two calves, aged 14 and 16 months, died within three days of each other.
2005-10-18 - Jharkhand, India.
Tree houses build on the top of strong, bushy trees with lush green pastures as the surrounding. This is neither a lavish spa center nor a page from the cartoon strip Phantom. This is the newest addition to Basadera village in west Singhbhum district of Jharkhand where tribals have moved in these houses to escape the menace of elephants. Elephants have recently been straying into the village in search of food and have been on a destruction spree, forcing villagers to build such tree houses to sa...
2005-10-18 - Samburu, Kenya.
A wild bull elephant strolls across the Kenyan countryside, ears flapping, oblivious to conservationist Ian Craig, creeping up behind him, gun poised. This is no ordinary hunt. The gun is not loaded with bullets, but tranquilliser darts. Mr Craig and his fellow conservationists hope to keep a track on the elephants in the Samburu National Park in northern Kenya, by using mobile phones, so they can send SMS messages giving their latest location.
2005-10-18 - Jaipur, India.
All have heard of Polo played astride horse. Recently, polo lovers of Jaipur organised a polo match between the two teams from Pakistan and Germany with players riding elephants instead of the customary horses. The participating members teams were from Lahore Polo Club of Pakistan and the Amby Valley of Germany. Another interesting aspect of the event was that the Pakistan team comprised of three male players who vied with three female counterparts from Germany.
2005-10-17 - HOSUR, India.
Two watchtowers had been set up on top of the hills of Sanjeevapuram and Erimalai in the Dharmapuri forest region recently to monitor the movement of elephants. At the Wildlife Week celebrations in Dharmapuri on Saturday, Information and Publicity Minister K P Anbazhagan said the towers had been constructed at a cost of Rs 3 lakh.
2005-10-15 - Audubon, United States. Steve Sabludowsky
While elephants from Audubon Zoo are helping with the cleanup efforts to remove the debris at Audubon Zoo, primarily by eating it, many former Audubon employees are being forced out of their jobs as Audubon is cleaning house due to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The elephants are eating oak leaves and bark the former employees—many who have given their lives to the zoo are eating dirt and its, not paydirt
2005-10-15 - Jaipur, India. Lokendra Singh
Tourists visiting Jaipur, which has the reputation of being a princely state, are irked over the shortages of elephants in the area, especially at a time when the elephant ride at prominent tourist spots in Rajasthan has been restored by the state government. Tourists gathering in the “Pink City†to enjoy an elephant ride, expressed their deep annoyance over the dilly-dallying attitude of the authorities, who had suspended elephant rides 20 days ago.
2005-10-15 - NAIROBI, Kenya. RODRIQUE NGOWI
The struggling parks where Kenya's largest elephant and rhino populations live will get trucks, communication equipment and better roads in a $1.25 million anti-poaching program. "The challenges are huge and they need help," said Elizabeth Wamba of the U.S.-based International Fund for Animal Welfare, which is funding the program.
2005-10-14 - Xinhua, China.
Wildlife observers are being trained in southwest China's Yunnan Province to monitor and protect the critically-endangered Asian elephants that roam virgin forests in the western and southern parts of the province. The training program, scheduled for Oct. 10-15, is sponsored by MIKE (Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants), an international environmental protection system that protects elephants from ivory poachers.
2005-10-14 - Pilanesberg, South Africa. Fiona Macleod
Fourteen badly burnt young elephants rescued from a wildfire in the Pilanesberg National Park are caught in a tug of war between conservationists about whether they should be put out of their misery. The National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) sent a high-level delegation of five veterinarians to check on the elephants after one of them died of its injuries. They have been treated at a private quarantine facility north of Pretoria since the rescue late last month.
2005-10-12 - Lampang, Thailand.
Two young female elephants, aged six and two years, were admitted to Lampang Elephant Hospital yesterday morning, a week after triggering a landmine in Burma. The explosion on Oct 5 mutilated six year-old Mojay's right hind leg and Motoo's left front leg. At the time they were following their mother to haul logs in the Burmese forest opposite Tak's Tha Song Yang district, said Soraida Salwala, founder of Friends of the Asian Elephant, which runs the hospital. The mother was not injured.
2005-10-12 - Sydney, Australia. John Huxley and Andrew Darby
They have not yet been cleared to come to Australia but the five Asian elephants earmarked for Taronga Zoo have already been signed up to lucrative, exclusive picture deals and assigned special, celebrity profiles. Recent requests to photograph the five - one male and four females - in quarantine at Kanchanaburi, west of Bangkok, were turned down because of a deal struck with a TV documentary maker, a zoo spokesman, Mark Williams, said.
2005-10-11 - MANILA, Philippines.
Philippine customs officials on Tuesday seized almost a ton of elephant tusks worth more than $500,000 at Manila airport. Nestor Gualberto, head of customs security, said the 850 kg (1,800 lb) shipment had arrived from Kenya last month in seven metal boxes labelled "rough stones". Officials opened the unclaimed boxes on Tuesday.
2005-10-11 - Manila, Philippines.
Philippine Customs Enforcement and Security Service director Nestorio Gualberto, 2nd from right, customs police Capt. Mariano Biteng, left, and customs collector Lourdes Kempis, right, inspect some of the more than 800 kilograms (1764 pounds) of seized elephant tusks which were illegally shipped to the country from Kenya at Manila's International Airport on Tuesday Oct. 11, 2005.
2005-10-10 - RANCHI, India.
The conflict between human beings and elephants has killed a large number of men and elephants in Jharkhand. According to official data, 63 elephants have died in the last four years. Elephants have also wreaked havoc, killing hundreds of people. Eleven elephants died in 2001-02 and 18 in 2002-03. This figure rose to 20 in 2003-04 and came down to 10 in 2004-05. Till August in the current year, four elephants have died.
2005-10-10 - Narok, Kenya. Kipchumba Kemei
More than 19 people have been killed and 38 others injured in Narok by wild animals in the past one year, area DC Hassan Farah has said. Farah also said farmers have incurred more than Sh50 million loss in the past three months. Speaking yesterday, the DC asked KWS to drive away elephants from settlement areas. Farah accused KWS of doing little to contain the elephant menace.
2005-10-10 - Portland, Oregon, United States.
2005-10-07 - Chhattisgarh, India. Lemru Chhattisgarh
Faced with the problem of elephant intrusions from neighbouring states of Jharkhand and Orissa, the Chhattisgarh government is considering providing a natural habitat for pachyderms in the forests near here in Korba district. About 100 odd elephants, which strayed into the state in search of food and water, have unleashed terror in about 132 villages spread over Jashpur, Raigarh, Sarguja and Korba districts and the state government's efforts to check the elephant menace has been in vain for many...
2005-10-06 - Madurai, India.
A group of 50 elephants, which were send in to the deep forests returned last evening to the Ayakudi area near Palani Hills in Didigul District. The elephants, which caused extensive damage to crops, were sent to the forest along with trained elephants last week. Forest officials said the elephants killed three farmers within 15 days when they attempted drive them away from the fields. They said the elephants damaged crops and trees worth about Rs one crore.
2005-10-05 - Portland, Oregon, United States. Oregon Zoo
Elephant Managares Association (EMA), USA. The emphasis will be placed on bull management but all topics on elephant management are welcome. Pretrip to Point defiance Zoo, Post trip to Wildlife Safari, Winston, Oregon.
2005-10-05 - Guruvayur, India.
A colourful parade of elephants and a special feast were held here on the occasion of World Elephants' Day on Tuesday, while animal rights groups appealed to owners and mahouts to care for the animals. About 40 pachyderms led by Gajaratnam Padmnabhan marched from the 'Manjulaal' at the eastern corridor of the Sri Krishna temple to the statue of legendary tusker Guruvayur Kesavan to pay floral tributes.
2005-10-05 - Belleville, Illinois, United States. ELIZABETH DONALD
What do you do with 8 cubic yards of elephant dung? That's the problem facing the Troy Chamber of Commerce -- so step right up and get yours. The Kelly Miller Circus is in town through today, and under the contract, it's the chamber's responsibility to get rid of the animals' excretions. With three elephants and a herd of other exotic animals, that's about 8 cubic yards, or two medium-sized Dumpsters -- of aromatic manure over the two days the circus is in town.
2005-10-05 - Sydney, Australia.
Leading animal welfare and conservation groups Wednesday opposed plans by the Australian government to import eight Asian elephants for its zoos. The groups - International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Humane Society International (HSI) and RSPCA - in a joint statement said that they would appeal against the decision by the Australian Minister for Environment, Ian Campbell, to allow the elephants from Thailand to go to Taronga and Melbourne zoos in the country.
2005-10-04 - KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia.
Two elephants which had been living in the forest next to a plantation in Tawau for the last three months were successfully relocated after a four-day operation. NstKiosk The two bulls were released three days ago at the Kuamut forest reserve in Kinabatangan. The relocation headed off a potential conflict between the elephants and humans. The elephants, one in its mid-teens and the other in its early 20s, had been foraging near houses.
2005-10-03 - Yangon, Myanmar. Khin Hninn Phyu
TWO elephants left Myanmar for Germany aboard a special chartered flight on September 27 under an exchange program between the Yangon and Cologne zoos. The two female elephants, Shu Thuzar and Aye Chan May, both about 12 years old, are being exchanged for a breeding pair of white rhinoceroses as well as a male and two female lions.
2005-10-02 - Pretoria, South Africa.
I have been following the deliberations and statements on elephant culling with considerable interest. The minister of environmental affairs is quite right to consider options with caution. I was initially relieved when SanParks consulted scientists from outside in dealing with the problem of whether elephants reduce biodiversity within the Kruger National Park and, if so, whether to cull them. I gather from colleagues who attended these earlier meetings that there is not a shred of evidence in ...
2005-10-02 - Apeldoorn, Netherlands.
A vast array of elephant collectables of the late WWF Founder-President HRH Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands was auctioned by Sotheby’s at Het Loo Palace, a former royal residence of the Dutch House of Orange. The ¤379,250 raised from the auction will go to WWF conservation efforts in Borneo. “This auction has risen far more than we ever dared imagine,” said Niek van Heijst, CEO of WWF-Netherlands. “We are extremely pleased that so many people, by buying one of the pri...
2005-09-30 - Shankar Bennur, India.
Rehearsals for the grand Jamboo Savari have been intensified for the high-profile guests of Mysore Dasara - elephants. All 12 jumbos are undergoing training under the watchful eyes of mahouts, kavadis, forest personnel and officials of the veterinary department. The jumbos hold ‘mock march’ on the procession route twice a day. On an average, the jumbos travel 12 to 15 km a day in the form of ‘familiarisation exercise’.
2005-09-30 - Jakarta, Indonesia. Nani Afrida
It has been almost a month since Sakdani had a good night's sleep; before he began staying up into the early hours of the morning to protect his banana plantation from rampaging elephants. "If I fall asleep my entire banana plantation will be destroyed by the elephants," a weary Sakdani told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
2005-09-30 - Kinshasa, Congo.
LRA rebels are terrorising civilians and killing wildlife in the restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC officials said Thursday. A band of fighters led by the group's deputy chief Vincent Otti that fled to the DRC earlier this month have terrified the local population and have begun poaching elephants in Garamba National Park, they said.
2005-09-29 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenya's biggest elephant relocation involving about 400 of the animals has been suspended until next January because of upcoming rains, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said on Thursday. "Apart from the short rains that have started, we will also take this opportunity to monitor the resettlement of the animals already in Tsavo and service our vehicles," said Patrick Omondi, who heads the KWS elephant programme.
2005-09-28 - Hammanskraal, South Africa. Melanie Gosling
Sixteen young elephants, burnt in a raging veld fire which swept through Pilanesberg National Park in North West last week, have been darted and trucked to a private boma at Hammanskraal for treatment. One elephant, which had part of its trunk and ears burnt off, died at the boma from its injuries yesterday. Another was taken by lions in the park and four were put down because their burns were so severe.
2005-09-28 - Ranchi, India.
Wild elephants killed one person and injured two others in Dumritand village under Silli police station area, police said today. Jibar Ram Mahto (55) was attacked by a herd of wild elephants, which came from the nearby forest last morning. The pachyderms dashed him against the ground, killing him on the spot. The herd also attacked Arun and Sohrai of nearby Marankiri village. Both have been admitted to a local hospital.
2005-09-28 - London, United Kingdom. Maxine Frith
London has become one of the biggest markets in the world for the trade in ivory, according to a report. Campaigners are concerned that the thousands of ivory products available in Britain are fuelling the illegal poaching of elephants in Africa and Asia. Investigators who compiled the report strongly criticised Britain for having the weakest controls in Europe over the trade in ivory.
2005-09-28 - Les Schober, United States.
The growing national debate over zoos' ability to adequately provide for elephants demonstrates wide public concern about current conditions for Earth's largest land mammal. Now the controversy has landed in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Zoo is planning to build a $16 million, two-acre elephant exhibit that, relative to zoo industry advances, is already outdated. The North Carolina Zoological Park built its three-acre enclosure 25 years ago, and is currently increasing to six acres. The Oakland Z...
2005-09-28 - Amber, Rajasthan, India. Lokendra Sing
The Rajasthan Government’s decision to ban elephant rides to the famous 16th century Amber Fort , has resulted in these pachyderms and their mahouts being without work. After a tourist escort was trampled to death by a visually-impaired elephant, the state’s tourism department stopped elephant rides to the fort. Till now, an elephant ride was seen as an integral part of a visit by tourists in Rajasthan. Elephant rides were introduced in 1953, and now, 120 of these animals have been left jobl...
2005-09-28 - Bankura, India.
With the onset of monsoon, the Dalma range migrants are back to strike the Bankura forests and villages. In three phases 69 wild elephants have reportedly reached Bankura in the past two weeks. The forest officials and the residents of villages falling under the coarse of journey of the elephants have further been struck with the return of the pachyderms.
2005-09-27 - ROYAL OAK, Michigan, United States.
Former Detroit Zoo elephants Wanda and Winky are making a good adjustment to their new home at an animal refuge in California, an official there says. "They've integrated very well with the rest of the elephants," said Pat Derby, founder of the Ark 2000 elephant sanctuary. Reports say that Wanda spent one night last week sleeping in dewy grass. Winky will swallow her medicine only if it is wrapped in French sourdough bread, while Wanda gets hers in Fig Newtons.
2005-09-26 - Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Three recreation projects with a combined investment of Bt3 billion are being developed in Chiang Mai under theme “Chiang Mai World”, designed to compete with man-made tourist destinations in Hong Kong and Singapore and to establish Chiang Mai as a new regional tourism hub. The projects are the Chiang Mai Night Safari, the Elephant Park and Bird Tunnel and the Cable Line.
2005-09-25 - Kruger National Park, South Africa.
To say the issue of culling elephants in the Kruger National Park is emotive is a desperate understatement. The issue is so fraught that the government has sidestepped it for the past 10 years, putting a moratorium on culls that has seen the elephant population soar. The truth of the matter is that the image of the apartheid government was so odious that culls could be carried out to maintain the elephant population at the level of about 7 000 because the Nationalist government had no reputation...
2005-09-24 - BROWNSVILLE, United States. Lynn Brezosky
When it comes to smuggling animals across the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. Wildlife Inspector Ed Marshall has seen it all. In 2001, an African elephant was smuggled across the Gateway International Bridge on a truck. "They call it the 'Dumbo Case,'" Marshall said, shaking his head. Exotic birds given Valium or tequila so they stay quiet through Customs inspections. Sleeves moving with hidden reptiles. Wildcats stashed in trunks. Last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents seized two white t...
2005-09-24 - Pilanesberg, South Africa.
Thirteen of the more than 20 elephants that got burned in a run away fire in the Pilansberg Game Park, in the North West, yesterday, have been rescued and taken to a safe facility. One elephant was put down. The inferno started on Tuesday outside the west fence of the park. Eighty percent of the grazing at the park has been destroyed. However, it is the damage to the elephant population that is hard to estimate.
2005-09-23 - Johannesburg, South Africa.
Twenty elephants were severely burnt and one was put down after a veld fire at Pilanesberg Game Park near Sun City in North West, reported SABC news on Friday. Medical rescue teams attended to the injured animals. Seven of the 20 injured elephants were transported to a place were they would receive special treatment. The park's manager, Peter Leitner, said the fire started outside the game park and then wreaked havoc among the animals.
2005-09-22 - KUALA TERENGGANU, Malaysia. Ajitpal Singh
THE fruiting season and logging activities in the Setiu and Hulu Terengganu districts have drawn wild elephants out of their habitat in the interior areas. Elephants have ransacked villagers' plantations around the forest areas and one even attacked a ranger. Trucks carrying fruits have also not been spared. Villagers in both districts are now terrified to work in their orchards, fearing that the elephants would return.
2005-09-22 - Los Angeles, United States. Dana Bartholomew
How big a yard does an elephant need? The answer could decide whether the city builds a $19 million pachyderm exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo or packs off its three elephants to an elephant sanctuary. Elephant experts argued for and against the two-acre exhibit this week before Los Angeles Zoo commissioners. Next week, the mayor is expected to review an independent study on elephant quarters at the zoo.
2005-09-22 - Victoria Falls, Zambia. ESTHER HARWARD
A Waikato microbologist has been killed by an elephant while on holiday in Africa. Bevan Jones, 75, was killed on Saturday by an elephant that strayed from its herd. Mr Jones, who lived in Hamilton for 20 years before retiring to Waihi with his wife Elaine, had been on a camping trip in Zambia with his oldest son Colin. Mr Jones had tried to hide from the elephant, his son-in-law Bruce Storrie said.
2005-09-22 - NAIROBI, Kenya. RODRIQUE NGOWI
The struggling parks where Kenya's largest elephant and rhino populations live will get trucks, communication equipment and better roads in a $1.25 million anti-poaching program unveiled Thursday. "The challenges are huge and they need help," said Elizabeth Wamba of the U.S.-based International Fund for Animal Welfare, which is funding the program.
2005-09-22 - NIAGARA FALLS, NY, United States.
Kelly-Ann, an 8,000 pound female Asian elephant from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Circus painted the breathtaking view of Niagara Falls today with children from a local school. Today (9/22) is National Elephant Appreciation Day, and was also proclaimed "Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey and Kelly-Ann Day" in Niagara Falls, N.Y. by the city's mayor.
2005-09-22 - Livingstone, Zambia.
A Waihi man has been killed by an elephant in Africa. David Beverley Jones, known as Bev, was holidaying in Zambia with his son Colin when he was charged by the stray elephant on Saturday. His son-in-law, Bruce Storrie, says the animal singled out Bev Jones and just went after him. Storrie says Colin Jones did his best to distract the animal. He says Bev Jones, a microbiologist who worked in Africa for 10 years with the United Nations, loved Africa and was no stranger to the environment. Jones' ...
2005-09-21 - Johannesburg, South Africa.
UP TO 10,000 elephants are facing slaughter as South Africa prepares to end its ten-year ban on culling the beasts. The Government is expecting a global outcry from animal welfare groups, so there will be an 18-month “consultation period” before the cull — which would involve rounding up and shooting entire family groups begins.
2005-09-21 - Bangkok, Thailand.
Thailand's forests are among the most biologically diverse on earth, and such biodiversity is the origin of many of our foods and medicines. In fact, the interaction between flora and fauna, and the conservation of this interaction, is of the utmost importance for the social well-being of Thailand. So believes senator Kraisak Choonhavan, renowned throughout Thailand as the often candid senator for foreign affairs, and a well-known advocate of conservation and the protection of wildlife.
2005-09-21 - Cincinnati, United States.
Name: Cecil Jackson Jr. Title: Elephant manager (trainer, head keeper). Residence: Owen County, Ky. Age: 44. Family: Single, three children. Years of service: 30 (began working with dad Cecil Sr., a trainer, at age 14). Best part of job: Being able to work day-to-day with such big, enormous animals as elephants, that are about to go into extinction and trying to help avoid that.
2005-09-20 - Mysore, India.
Karnataka is the first in the country to notify an Elephant Corridor and two of them are already in place including the Kanniyanpura Corridor near Moyar River at the Bandipur National Park and the Bekkattur Arabikere Corridor that connects the Kollegal Reserve Forest division to Billigiri Ranga Sanctuary, Malini Shankar tells us.
2005-09-20 - Pretoria, South Africa. Sky News
South Africa has said it wants to carry out culls to contain its elephant population.Officials said a final decision would be made early next year after public consultations.Such a move is sure to provoke a global outcry from animal welfare groups who view the practice, which involves the rounding up and shooting of entire family groups, as cruel.
2005-09-20 - SEATTLE, United States.
Woodland Park Zoo officials hope that this time, the stork comes for the elephant. An ultrasound taken Sunday morning revealed that Woodland Park Zoo's 26-year-old Asian elephant, Chai, is ovulating, prompting scientists to try once again to inseminate her artificially. Fresh bull elephant semen was rushed to Seattle from the Oregon Zoo in Portland and the Tulsa Zoo in Oklahoma on Sunday, and the tricky business was performed that evening.
2005-09-20 - THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India.
If you thought that the big kill was just for tusks, you are poorly initiated into the unfortunate world of captive elephants. For unscrupulous ‘trader owners’, killing captive elephants using the most inventive methods is the smartest way to extract lakhs by way of insurance money.
2005-09-19 - Jaipur, India.
In the wake of a tour guide being trampled to death by an elephant last week, Rajasthan has set up a committee to probe the causes of "unusual" behaviour of elephants that ferry tourists to the Amber Fort here. Thursday's incident - reportedly due to the animal's irritation at a camera flashlight and in which two Belgian tourists were also injured - sparked off safety fears at one of the three mightiest forts in and around Jaipur city.
2005-09-19 - New Delhi, India.
Threat to pachyderm comes not only from poaching for ivory but also from rapid loss of its habitat. Saving the Asian Elephant - Hemendra Kothari, David Ferguson and Bittu Sahgal. Sanctuary Magazine together with DSP Merrill Lynch hosted an evening with American wildlife biologist David Ferguson to discuss the future of the Asian elephant in the country that worships the elephant God.
2005-09-19 - BANGKOK, Thailand.
They don't have to be housebroken because these pets won't fit in your home. But not just anyone can own an elephant, says Laithongrian Meephan, 47, owner of the Ayutthaya Elephant Farm, 45 miles north of Bangkok, who is selling about 20 elephants between the ages of 1 1/2 to 3 years. Prices start at $48,700 apiece for the beasts, which he promises are well-bred, well-trained, well-behaved and a source of luck.
2005-09-18 - SEATTLE, United States.
An ultrasound taken Sunday morning revealed that Woodland Park Zoo's 26-year-old Asian elephant, Chai, is ovulating, prompting two German scientists to try once again to inseminate her artificially. The scientists, Dr. Thomas Hildebrandt and Dr. Frank Goeritz, last tried to inseminate Chai in March. Zoo officials had to wait until June to learn that the procedure hadn't worked, and this is Chai's next cycle, said zoo spokeswoman Gigi Allianic. Elephants ovulate just three times a year.
2005-09-17 - Jaldapara (West Bengal), India.
India’s wildlife reserves plan to make elephants an integral part of eco-tourism to recover the whopping cost of maintaining them. On an average an elephant needs approximately 2,300 dollars annually for their upkeep. As elephants rescued from lumberyards and circuses add to the numbers, park authorities say they are left with no other option.
2005-09-16 - Harare, Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is about to import four endangered Siberian tigers from China for captive breeding, officials say. Zimbabwe Tourism Minister Francis Nhema told the Herald newspaper China had received zebras, elephants and impala as part of an "exchange programme". Correspondents say the move shows President Mugabe is wooing China. He is trying to strengthen ties with the Asian giant as his country is increasingly isolated in the world because of a poor human rights record.
2005-09-16 - Jaipur, India.
In a startling revelation, a former tourist official Friday said that 20 of the 100-odd elephants engaged in carrying tourists to the famous Amber Fort near here are blind, leading to increasing cases of accidents. "It's shocking but 20 of the 117 elephants, ferrying tourists, are blind and one can easily imagine what a risky business it is," Daulat Singh Rajawat, former general secretary of Tourist Guide Federation of India, (TGFI) told a news conference here.
2005-09-16 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Researchers in Kenya and South Africa are using cellphone technology to gather information on elephants, cheetahs, leopards and other animals. The relatively cheap tracking device includes a no-frills cellphone that is put in a weatherproof case with a GPS receiver, memory card and software to operate the system. The unit, placed on a collar, is then tied around the neck of a wild animal.
Elephants and buffaloes are dying of starvation in a wildlife-rich area of western Zimbabwe, the state-controlled Herald reported on Friday. The paper said at least four elephant calves and several buffaloes have died recently in the Matetsi area near Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe's prime tourist resort. "I am aware that several buffaloes were reported dead in the last three weeks," Minister of Tourism Francis Nhema was quoted as saying.
2005-09-15 - Kruger National Park, South Africa.
Seven more elephants have escaped from the Kruger National Park (KNP) and are roaming through the Matsulu location near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga. This follows the escape of six elephants that were put down in Limpopo Province last week, because they could not be safely herded back into the park. Louw Stein of the Mpumalanga Parks Board says the reason why elephants are escaping from the park, is the shortage of edible vegetation. He says this is due to a large bush fire that swept through the par...
2005-09-15 - Jaipur, India.
An elephant trampled a man to death and injured two Belgian tourists seriously when it went out of control at Amber fort on the outskirts of this Rajasthan capital Thursday.Vinod Bambha, 45, the manager of a travel agency, was escorting tourists Whars Mausini, 74, and Louis Dominique, 49, who had come from Delhi, around the popular tourist site when the incident occurred.
2005-09-14 - Windhoek, Namibia. Larry O'Hanlon
Namibian elephants really know the airwaves, say researchers who have discovered that the big mammals prefer to broadcast their very low-frequency calls at exactly the times of day when the air is best for carrying sound a long way. In a three-week study that incorporated a range of meteorological equipment and an array of eight microphones, 42 percent of all elephant calls were made during the stable air period three hours after sunset.
2005-09-14 - ANCHORAGE, Alaska, United States.
A 16,000-pound treadmill specifically built to exercise Maggie the elephant arrived at the Alaska Zoo, but the question remains: Just how do you get a more than 4-ton animal fighting the battle of the bulge to use a treadmill? Zoo director Tex Edwards is optimistic she can do it. "Every time we've undertaken to teach Maggie something new she has always learned it faster than we anticipated," Edwards said Tuesday. "She seems to enjoy new challenges."
2005-09-13 - El Paso, United States.
It's been nearly two months since El Paso City Council voted to look into expanding the El Paso Zoo elephant exhibit. Tuesday Mayor John Cook told KFOX the plans for expansion could be bigger than first announced. As KFOX was first to report, animal rights activists say Juno and Savannah suffer captivity-induced health problems, allegedly because they are kept on too small a plot of land.
2005-09-13 - Panaji, India.
The deputy conservator of forests (north), Mr R K Singh is keeping a watch over the north Goan villages and the forest area, even though three elephants disturbing the region for over past three months have already crossed the Goan border and are currently in the state of Maharashtra. Mr Singh told The Navhind Times that the chief conservator of forests, Mr A K Wahal had already instructed him to maintain a surveillance over North Goa, in this regard.
2005-09-13 - Mysore, India. Sharath S. Srivatsa
Preparations for the Dasara festivities and the famous "Jamboo Savari" (elephant parade) bring back painful memories for this soft-spoken mahout. Doddappaji, who once handled Drona, the elephant that carried the howdah, has refused to take part in the Dasara festivities after Drona was tragically electrocuted. A third generation mahout and an expert in taming wild elephants, Doddappaji is haunted by memories of Drona. After the death of Drona in 1998, he requested senior officials not to ask him...
2005-09-11 - Hohenwald, Tennessee, United States.
Responsibilities: The Sanctuary has immediate openings (2) for experienced elephant keepers. The qualified applicants will be charged with maintaining female African and Asian elephants in two separate multi-hundred acre habitats. Responsibilities include but are not limited to cleaning, food preparation, record keeping, behavior conditioning, construction, facility maintenance, keeper training and supervision.
2005-09-11 - Kruger National Park, South Africa. Mike Cadman
D-Day is fast approaching for thousands of elephants in the Kruger National Park. A long-awaited report by South African National Parks (SANP) that proposes ways to manage the rapidly growing elephant population of Kruger Park will be presented to Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the environmental affairs and tourism minister, on September 20. The report will address the controversial option of culling.
2005-09-11 - Hua Hin, Thailand.
The 5th King's Cup Elephant Polo came to a dramatic end on the 11th as the Chivas Regal Scotland team clinched the title from Mullis Capital after a sudden death play-off. The final match of this colourful tournament, hosted by the Anantara Resort and Spa, was played before the representative of His Majesty the King. Both teams fought hard in the first half, with Mullis taking advantage of a two-goal lead from handicap and soon extended the score to 4-1 with two goals from Khun Tat, playing for ...
2005-09-10 - Nagarahole, India. Bhushan Datta
The early morning mist rising off the Kabini Reservoir gives the land a surreal look. The elephant has spent the night browsing on the juicy bamboo leaves and needs a drink of water before retreating into the cool depths of the forest. The rising sun soon bums away the last tendrils of mist, beginning another hot day at the Nagarahole National Park in Karnataka.
2005-09-09 - Laikipia, Kenya. Michuki Ngamau
For a long time residents of Laikipia District have been in conflict with elephants. The wild animals have killed, maimed and wrecked havoc on private farms. Now, the locals have resolved that enough is enough. The community is digging a 42km-long moat around their homesteads. The trench will cut off Bondeni, Siron, Mutamaiyu, Limunga and Kianugu in Rumuruti Division from the reach of the animals.
2005-09-09 - Seattle, United States. David Hancocks
Usually, zoos seek publicity for major events, such as the arrival of a new elephant. But late last month, an Asian elephant named Bamboo was transported without fanfare from Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo to Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma. It was a sad final chapter in a tragic story. The history of elephants in zoos is full of mental and physical pain. Wild elephants, astonishingly intelligent, perceptive and complex beings, live in caring and secure extended families that stay intact for life. But...
2005-09-09 - Canningsmoore, Marite, South Africa.
Six elephants that escaped from the Kruger National Park have been shot dead. They first broke a fence two days ago but were chased back. The grass appeared greener on the other side and the elephants were lured to Canningsmoore, East of Marite. The parks officials were reluctant to risk chasing them back again as they were grazing in between small communities and could have endangered the residents.
2005-09-08 - Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. Jane Ballentine
One of the largest gatherings of animal care experts in the country will take place in Chicago, from 13-18 September when the John G. Shedd Aquarium hosts the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's (AZA) Annual Conference. Experts in the arenas of veterinary care, education, wildlife conservation and animal training will meet to learn about their colleagues' latest research and best practices.
2005-09-07 - Mysore, India.
The 2005 edition of Dasara festival commencing next month in Mysore is expected to cost Rs 2 crore, Rs 10 lakh more than it cost last year. The State Government has sanctioned Rs 75 lakh for organising Dasara, while the organising officials have sought an additional Rs 75 lakh government support. The maiden programme - arrival of the elephants from their abode in the forests - was completed early this week. Half a dozen jumbos, including the howdah-carrier Balarama, received traditional royal we...
2005-09-07 - Kochi, India.
The Kerala High Court today directed the Travancore and Kochi Devaswom Boards to take necessary steps as required under the Captive Elephants (Management and Maintenance) rules, 2003 to protect the elephants under their control. A Division Bench comprising Justice R Bhaskaran and Justice J M James warned the Devaswom Boards that inaction in this regard would be viewed seriously and the Devaswom officers would be liable to answer for their lapses.
2005-09-06 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenya's wildlife authorities said here Monday its rangers have seized 22 elephant tusks and arrested three suspects who tried to sell them in Garsen town in southeastern Kenya. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Communications Director Connie Maina said the trio who were looking for buyers were arrested by KWS rangers who posed as buyers following a tip-off on Monday.
2005-09-06 - Bengkulu, Indonesia.
A herd of 50 wild elephants destroyed around 500 hectares of oil palm and rubber plantations in Muko-Muko district, Bengkulu province, Indonesia, over the past week. The wild elephants attacked oil palm and rubber plantations at any time at night, Antara news agency quoted Maskur, a resident of Pondok Suguh village, as saying on Monday.
2005-09-06 - JOHANNESBURG, South Africa. Ed Stoddard
It has spiced up many a meal but now the fiery chilli pepper is being used to cool an ancient feud between farmers and wild elephants in Africa. In the Zambezi valley in southern Zambia, small-scale farmers are growing chilli peppers as a deterrent against elephants that raid their crops -- and marketing the end result. "Elephants simply don't like the smell of chilli," said Nina Gibson, project coordinator for the Elephant Pepper Development Trust.
2005-09-05 - NAIROBI, Kenya. TOM MALITI
Kenya has resumed its largest ever relocation of elephants, moving 50 of 400 pachyderms expected to make the trip on flatbed trailers from an overcrowded national park to a more secure reserve. The Shimba Hills park has 600 elephants, or three times what it can comfortably handle, so the animals move into populated areas, destroying crops and injuring people. Elephant-human encounters have been increasing as Kenya's population grows and more people move to once-empty land to farm, at times close...
2005-09-05 - Riau, Indonesia.
Expert has called on Indonesian government to step in to save Sumatra elephants whose population is dwindling in recent years. "Protection measures are urgent as the elephant population is decreasing rapidly in number," Wisnu Wardhana, a zoo and wild animal consultant from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), was quoted Monday by The Jakarta Post newspaper as saying.
2005-09-05 - Mysore, India.
The first batch of Dasara elephants — Balarama, Bharatha, Gajendra, Kanti, Revathi and Prashanth — which arrived at the Palace this morning were accorded a traditional welcome by Labour and District In-charge Minister Tanveer Sait and dignitaries. Amidst chanting of vedic hymns, an arathi was performed as the majestic jumbos entered the Jayamarthanda gate of the Palace. A mixture of paddy, sugarcane and jaggery was fed to the elephants.
2005-09-04 - KUALA TERENGGANU, Malaysia.
The tuskers are at it again. A herd of 30 elephants destroyed crops on a 2.6ha farm at about 3am in Kuala Jengai, Dungun today. Late last month, elephants destroyed crops on two occasions in the same village, and now villagers are scared to work in their orchards. Elephants foraging for food have also terrorised several villages in the Hulu Terengganu and Kemaman districts.
2005-09-04 - PALAKKAD, India.
Elephant doctors of Kerala are in great demand for treating sick pachyderms and tranquillising them when they go berserk in musth. They are becoming increasingly sought after around the globe. One of the doctors, Jacob Cheeran, will appear as an elephant expert in a case, involving the government of Australia which intended to import eight elephants from Thailand for their zoos and non governmental organisations which opposed the decision, before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
2005-09-03 - Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Sebastien Berger
Cambodia's most wanted tiger hunter has been sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for the killing of hundreds of endangered animals. Yor Ngun had taken 19 tigers, 40 leopards, 30 elephants, 40 sun bears and 500 gaur (wild cattle), according to the conservation group WildAid. Snaring and trapping them in the jungles, he sold them into the Chinese wildlife trade, where body parts fetch high prices for use in traditional medicines.
2005-09-03 - ALOR STAR, Malaysia.
A procession of 10 elephants bearing Malay "warriors" to depict the power of the ancient Malay empires will be among the highlights of the Merdeka Month closing ceremony to be held in Darulaman Park, Jitra, on Sept 16. Information Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir said the elephants procession would also draw attention to the customs of the past. He said another attraction at the closing festivities would be a performance by pop diva Siti Nurhaliza and Akademi Fantasia 3 (AF3) champi...
2005-09-01 - Sarasota, United States. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
If working with Elephants appeals to you, we have a great opportunity. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® Circus has immediate openings for elephant handlers who aren't afraid to work hard caring for our elephants. Responsibilities include total animal care such as grooming, feeding, cleaning and exercising animals. You must be able to work flexible hours and must be able to lift/move up to 75 lbs. Prior experience working with Asian Elephants in a Free Contact environment is preferred.
2005-08-31 - DELAND, United States. Etan Horowitz
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals asked the federal government on Tuesday to investigate Cole Bros. Circus after one of its elephants reportedly grabbed the arm of a woman at a Pennsylvania fair. The DeLand-based circus recently stopped using animals at its circus shows but continues to lease elephants to other circus operators. One of those elephants wrapped its trunk around an 18-year-old woman at a fair in Mount Pleasant Township, Pa., on Thursday, according to the Pittsburgh Tribun...
2005-08-31 - HARARE, Zimbabwe. (Reuters)
Zimbabwe, home to thousands of elephants, has banned safari hunting in the western districts of Dete and Hwange to protect a "presidential" elephant herd, the official Herald newspaper said on Wednesday. "We have banned hunting activities in those areas where we find the presidential herd of elephants for sanity and order to prevail," the paper quoted Tourism and Environment Minister Francis Nhema as saying.
2005-08-31 - San Andreas, United States. Raheem Hosseini
Ed Stewart tips a little white pill bottle sideways, dropping a fistful of blue and white capsules into a hunk of stale sourdough. It can mean only one thing: It’s time to give Winky her medicine. Winky is one of two Asian elephants to have recently come to the massive compound in San Andreas belonging to the Progressive Animal Welfare Society, a non-profit organization advocating wildlife causes.
2005-08-31 - MONROVIA, Liberia. Katharine Houreld (Reuters)
Thousands of squatters who were hunting elephants and mining gold in a Liberian national park have left under a scheme to save one of the country's few wildlife sanctuaries, conservationists said on Wednesday. Gunmen who ran riot during 14 years of civil war have fought for control of resources from iron ore to rubber, often turning their guns on wild animals for food and invading reserves such as Sapo National Park in search of gold.
2005-08-29 - SHIMBA HILLS, Kenya. David Mwangi
Kenya began moving 400 elephants from an overcrowded reserve on its Indian Ocean coast on Thursday in an unprecedented transportation intended to protect the environment and reduce conflict with local people. The state Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said the $3.2 million, eight-month operation from the Shimba Hills reserve would be the world‘s biggest translocation of live animals.
2005-08-28 - PHILADELPHIA, United States.
The Philadelphia Zoo may have to send some of its resident elephants packing if it can't secure millions of dollars from the state for a new elephant exhibit. The zoo's herd currently occupies a quarter-acre yard with an 1,800-square-foot barn, built in the 1940s. While the enclosure meets the current standards of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, some say it doesn't give the elephants the ability to forage or roam. Now, the zoo is urging the state to come forward with $7.2 million in c...
2005-08-28 - Los Angeles, United States.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recently called for an independent review of three elephants' well-being at the Los Angeles Zoo. The study, anticipated to address housing and health needs, is to be conducted by the City Administrative Office and submitted to the mayor and city council by Sept. 30 of this year.
2005-08-27 - Falcon Heights, United States. Jason DeRusha
Inside the grandstand you will find some beautiful paper. It's gorgeous. And it's made almost entirely from elephant poop. "And over here, this is my specialty paper," Karl Wald said to a customer. "This is what everybody likes." Wald, also known as "Mr. Ellie Pooh," is from South St. Paul and has a Ph.D. in biochemistry. Wald works with a group in Sri Lanka, where farmers often think of elephants as pests and kill them. Instead, Wald is trying to show the farmers how valuable the animals can be...
2005-08-27 - Pittsburgh, United States. Dwayne Pickels, PittsburghLIVE.com
A North Huntingdon Township woman says her first trip to the Westmoreland Fair ended in pain after a four-ton circus elephant grabbed her wrist with its trunk. "I guess I was just the unlucky one," Ellisha Long said Friday, nursing a bad sprain. Long, 18, said she and her boyfriend, Steve Parsons, went to the fairgrounds in Mt. Pleasant Township Thursday evening and stopped by Wambold's Circus Menagerie at 8:35 p.m.
2005-08-27 - Arusha, Tanzania. William Kasembe
Enhanced wildlife protection activities have been credited for the current increase in elephants in Tanzania whose numbers have more than doubled within twelve years. The Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Mrs. Zakia Meghji said recently that the protection activities, funded by the Tanzania Wildlife Protection Fund (TWPF) have benefitted the endangered animals, boosting their original populations that characterized the national wildlife scene 15 years ago.
2005-08-26 - Chicago, United States. ANDREW HERRMANN
Zoo elephants aren't educational -- they're entertainment for bored people, an animal expert testified before a City Council committee Thursday. Furthermore, children could learn more from watching a TV documentary than "two lonely female [zoo elephants] standing in a tiny area,'' said Joyce Poole, who has studied elephants in Africa for 30 years, including as head of the Kenya Wildlife Service.
2005-08-26 - INDIANAPOLIS, United States.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says it secretly recorded the video of a trainer working for Carson & Barnes Circus. It says the footage shows a trainer instructing someone else on how to use electric prods and bull hooks to train them for performances. The circus is performing at the Marion County Fairgrounds this weekend. Before the first event Friday afternoon, circusgoers were met by protestors with PETA.
2005-08-26 - Tacoma, United States.
Bamboo, an Asian elephant, has arrived safely at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. She is settling into her new surroundings in the Asian Forest Sanctuary. The 38-year-old elephant was transported by air-conditioned truck Thursday night from Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. Bamboo is in good health and appears to have handled the move very well. Animal care staff and veterinarians from Woodland Park Zoo accompanied her during the short trip.
2005-08-25 - Khao Yai, Thailand. ALONGKOT CHUKAEW & PHILIPPA MITCHELL
Take the elephant for example. Nobody can call it a fussy eater _ its feeds on grass, leaves, fruits, vines, bark, roots and young shoots. The Wild Elephant Research and Rescue Fund (WERF) in Khao Yai has found that elephants eat at least 103 different species of plants, although they are known to have a preference for bamboo, most plants of the ginger family, banana trees and rattan. Finding enough food to feed an animal this large is no easy task _ about 300kg per day for a fully grown pachyde...
2005-08-25 - CHICAGO, United States.
An animal behaviorist who has studied elephants for 30 years in Africa told a City Council committee Thursday she believes no zoo can adequately care for elephants without providing several miles of space for them to roam. Alderwoman Mary Ann Smith (48th) has introduced legislation that would require any zoo or other stationary animal exhibit to provide a minimum of 10 acres of space, five acres indoors and five outdoors, per elephant.
2005-08-23 - Bloomington, United States. Kris Kirschner
The Carson and Barnes Circus is a family-run operation that performs in smaller communities like Bloomington. In business more than 60 years, it's one of the last under the Big Top. But there are those who'd like to run this show out of town. "Some of the concerns are the methods of training the elephants." As Executive Director of the Monroe County Humane Association, Sarah Hayes cares about animals. Recently, her attention has focused on elephant training for the Carson and Barnes Circus. Vide...
2005-08-23 - Dublin, Ireland.
It’s going to be an emotional farewell for Dublin Zoo’s two popular elephants when they head to a new home in Germany in a few weeks, the zoo’s assistant director said today. Elephants Judy and Kirsty, who have been at the zoo for a decade, will be moving to Neunkirchen Zoo in western Germany in mid September. Paul O’Donoghue, Dublin Zoo’s assistant director, said the decision to move the elephants was a difficult one, but the zoo was committed to an elephant breeding programme.
2005-08-22 - Nairobi, Kenya. Tom Maliti
The Kenya Wildlife Service will relocate 400 elephants to Kenya's largest national park, from a smaller national reserve in the country's south-east that has too many elephants, a spokesperson said on Monday. The $3,2-million exercise will begin on Thursday and involve transporting elephants more than 350km to the northern part of Tsavo East National Park, from Shimba Hills National Reserve, said Edward Indakwa, a corporate communications officer with the Kenya Wildlife Service.
2005-08-21 - Hartebeespoort, South Africa. Arja Salafranca
An elephant's hide is curiously soft, wrinkled and folded over on itself, but also incredibly soft. That was a surprise; only having seen elephants in the wild from game drive vehicles, I had assumed the skin to be as tough and coarse as it looks from afar. Elephants also have their own personalities, and that weekend at the Elephant Sanctuary in Hartebeespoort, we all fell in love with our individual elephants.
2005-08-20 - Los Angeles, United States. Dana Bartholomew
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has called for an independent review of elephant quarters at the Los Angeles Zoo, a move that could determine whether to send the pachyderms packing to a wildlife sanctuary. The study puts on hold nearly $11 million requested to complete construction of the $19 million Pachyderm Forest, an exhibit already more than a year behind schedule.
2005-08-18 - DENVER, United States.
If a group of prominent ecologists have their way, lions and elephants could someday be roaming the Great Plains of North America. The idea of transplanting African wildlife to this continent is being greeted with gasps and groans from other scientists and conservationists who recall previous efforts to relocate foreign species halfway around the world, often with disastrous results.
2005-08-17 - Columbus, United States.
A jumbo-sized loss for the Columbus Zoo, which is reporting the death of a seven-year-old Asian elephant. The zoo says Ganesh was found dead in his stall this morning when his keeper arrived for work. The cause of death wasn't immediately known. The animal had been on loan from Cincinnati's zoo, where he was born in 1998. He was moved up the road to Columbus in 2003 after becoming difficult to handle. The Columbus zoo is said to have better facilities for male elephants. It also has four other ...
2005-08-17 - Jacksonville, United States. Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens
The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens is currently seeking an experienced elephant keeper. Preferred qualifications include a degree in biology or related field, a minimum of 5 years experience in an AZA accredited zoo with previous experience working protected contact. Must be familiar with the AZA Standards for Elephant Management and Care.
2005-08-16 - Kariba, Zimbabwe.
Marauding elephants have destroyed homes and sent residents fleeing in the Zimbabwean resort town of Kariba, a state daily reported yesterday. "A herd of stray elephants wreaked havoc in Kariba where it destroyed homes and forced a number of Nyamhunga township residents and others on the outskirts of Charara National Park to flee," the Herald newspaper said. The newspaper quoted a resident who said six "violent" elephants had been spotted on the rampage in the area bordering Zambia, trampling ve...
2005-08-16 - Borneo, Indonesia.
Newly discovered pygmy elephants in Borneo are being outfitted with transmitters to allow orbiting satellites to track them as they migrate through dense rain forest mountains. Experts use dart guns to tranquilise the pachyderms, which are then outfitted with tag collars, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) spokesman Stefan Ziegler. Each tag, a grey, brick-like device strapped around the elephant's neck, will transmit its whereabouts to a satellite three times a day for 18 months until the ba...
2005-08-15 - Jaipur, India. Qaiser Mohammad Ali
The Indian, Pakistani and English cricket teams, here for the Champions Trophy matches, have been invited to play elephant polo Monday - an entirely different ball game. Elephant polo, a traditional and elite sport, is quite popular in the state and particularly in the state capital. It is one of the several versions of polo played in India, the other being horse polo and cycle polo.
2005-08-13 - St. Norfolk, Virginia, United States. DEBBIE LEAHY
Regardless of how one feels about zoos and circuses, the proposed elephant protection ordinance makes good sense. The ordinance sponsored by Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th) would prohibit the chaining of elephants and the use of the bullhook; would require zoos to provide 10 acres of space per elephant and circuses to provide 3,600 square feet for a single elephant and an extra 1,800 square feet for each additional elephant.
2005-08-10 - Honolulu, United States. Ron Mizutani
After more than a year of practicing, it was time for the real thing. Vaigai, a 20-year-old Asian elephant at the Honolulu Zoo, was artificially inseminated Wednesday morning, but the procedure came a day earlier than expected. Zookeepers were expecting her to ovulate in two days, but instead it happened some time last night, which meant the A-I procedure had to be done this morning.
2005-08-10 - Thiruvananthapuram, India.
India's wild elephant population has risen, if initial findings of an ongoing census are to be believed. "The census process is in its final stages and the sighting of more baby elephants is a strong indicator that when the final tally is arrived at, the population of wild elephants would have gone up," Jacob Cheeran, a steering committee member of Project Elephant, told IANS.
2005-08-08 - Panaji, India.
Trained elephants from Shimoga in Karnataka have arrived in Goa to help the state’s forest department to drive away wild elephants. The government of Goa has requisitioned the services of these five trained tuskers to drive away three wild elephants -- two females and one male calf—which have terrorised the villages coming under the sub-districts of Bardez and Bicholim taluka in the state.
2005-08-08 - Luangwa, Zambia.
Elephants have continued ravaging people’s winter gardens and granaries in Chief Mphuka’s area in Luangwa District threatening household food security for those depending on winter gardens for survival. Kabowo ward councillor, Foster Tembo revealed this to Luangwa District Commissioner, Kenneth Chipungu during a meeting held at Yapite Resettlement Scheme over the weekend.
2005-08-07 - BICHOLIM, India.
Five trained elephants from Shimoga, Karnataka, arrived at Amthane-Bicholim on Sunday to drive away the wild elephants who have created havoc in the villages of Bicholim and Bardez. At around 2.30 pm, the kunkis (trained elephants) entered Pirna village in five trucks. The elephant trainers, later, walked them to Amthane.The ‘kunkis’ include two male and three female elephants, whose names are Mayur, Geeta, Sagar, Ranga and New Tusker.
2005-08-07 - Panaji, India.
Nearly a fortnight after the three wild elephants struck terror among the people in villages of Bardez and Bicholim taluka, the government has finally brought five trained tuskers called ‘Kunki’, along with ten ‘mahouts’ from Shimoga district of Karnataka to drive them away so that they can reach to their habitation in Maharashtra.
2005-08-05 - Harare, Zimbabwe. Bjorn Carey
A little bit of spicy chili peppers is all African farmers need to keep hungry elephants from stealing crops. By planting a few rows of chili peppers around the perimeter of their crops, farmers have created a buffer zone that's spicy enough to keep elephants, buffalo and other hungry mammals away. "Chili peppers are unpalatable to crop-raiding mammals, so they give farmers an economically feasible means of minimizing damage to their investments," said Loki Osborn, project director for the Eleph...
2005-08-04 - Thrissur, India. Sanu George
He is 63 and looks rather frail, but Jacob Cheeran is one man the mammoth temple elephants of Kerala fear. For, the elephant expert is always around with tranquillisers to tame them when they experience 'mast' - a condition of physiological breakdown during which the pachyderms practically go berserk. On Tuesday, Cheeran and his team might just have written themselves into the record books by firing a tranquilliser shot at their 500th elephant here.
2005-08-03 - Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Yesterday evening the first elephant baby ever was born in Amsterdam's Zoo, Artis. The baby, probably a girl, was born at 22.22 (10.22 pm) in the evening. It is the first elephant ever born in Artis. At this point, the baby can only be seen through the monitoring camera. If nothing happens, mother and baby can be visited on Thursday, between 11am and 1pm, and between 3pm and 5pm.
2005-08-02 - Panaji, India.
A team of Forest Department led by the assistant conservator of forest (ACF), Mr Pradeep Kundaikar from Ponda, today left for Shimoga in Karnataka to complete the formalities for getting five trained elephants ‘Kunki’ to deal with the wild tuskers in few villages of Bardez and Bicholim taluka.
2005-08-01 - Lilongwe, Malawi. Chikondi Chiyembekeza
The British Army is helping in giving anti-poaching skills to Game Rangers at the Kasungu National Park. Secretary for Defence, James Kalilangwe said the exercise would go a long way in saving the number of game in the park, numbers of which have been declining over the past years. Of all the game, elephants have suffered the most due to poachers who regularly invade the park.
2005-07-31 - JAMBI, Indonesia.
A group of elephants from Bukit Tigapuluh National park attacked nearby villages in the last six months, destroying some 15,000 hectares of rubber and oil palm plantations in the area. No one was injured in the rampage. "Around 30 elephants attacked the plantations because they can't find their food in the national park area," Warsi environment organization Bukit Tigapuluh program coordinator Dicky Kurniawan said on Thursday.
2005-07-31 - Thrissur, India.
Spread of tuberculosis among captive elephants in Kerala is causing concern as eight pachyderms are reported to have died due to the disease last year. Overwork, lack of proper diet, unhygienic upkeep and absence of periodic health check-up are said to be the reasons for the spread of the disease. "The disease poses a serious threat to elephants. Last year there was an increase in tuberculosis cases," senior veterinarian and elephant expert Dr K C Panicker said.
2005-07-31 - SYRACUSE, New York, United States.
After a 20-minute labor, an Asian elephant gave birth to a jumbo baby who was up and walking 10 minutes after he hit the ground Sunday at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park. Kedar, whose name means "powerful" in Hindi, weighed in at 345 pounds and stood 38 inches tall. Baby elephants usually weigh between 250 and 300 pounds. He was born at 9 a.m. Sunday to Targa, whose 20-minute labor and delivery was the fastest in the zoo's history, according to zoo director Dr. Anne Baker.
2005-07-29 - Sydney, Australia. Andrew Darby
Eight Asian elephants bound for Sydney and Melbourne zoos will have spent at least a year in quarantine in Thailand before their fate is known. An appeal against the Federal Government's decision to allow them into Australia will be heard from September 26, and the zoos yesterday agreed not to move the animals until it was completed.
2005-07-28 - New York, United States.
Key to Elephant Conservation is in The Sauce: Fiery chillies keep elephants out of crops and make a great sauce, say African entrepreneurs. What do hot sauce aficionados and African elephants have in common? They both feel the burn of chilli peppers, the key ingredient for resolving human-elephant conflicts in Africa while raising money for farmers and conservation.
2005-07-27 - Jon Humbert, United States.
Using logic, reason, science and a little heart, both sides of the Elephant debate in El Paso had their say today in the Council Chambers. After half hour presentations from the Zoo faction and Concerned Citizens for Savannah and Juno, the Council voted 8-0 to keep the Elephants in El Paso. Concerned Citizens made a plea to the Council to let the two elephants go to Tennessee to a sanctuary.
2005-07-27 - Lincoln, Illinois, United States. ANDREW HERRMANN
A revised proposal to restrict the display of elephants will be introduced in the City Council today -- but critics say the new measure would still effectively prohibit pachyderms at zoos and circuses. Under the ordinance sponsored by Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th), Lincoln Park Zoo would need to devote 10 acres to every elephant. Zoos typically keep no fewer than three elephants at a time, making it impossible for the 35-acre Lincoln Park institution to host the animals.
2005-07-26 - Syracuse, New York, United States. WILLIAM KATES
Keepers at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo _ already awaiting the birth of one new baby elephant this summer _ will be pacing the floor again next year when a second baby is expected. Romani, a 29-year-old Asian elephant, is due with her fourth calf in late spring or early summer of next year, Zoo Director Anne Baker said Tuesday. Any day now, 23-year-old Targa is expected to deliver her second calf, which will likely weigh between 250 and 300 pounds.
2005-07-26 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Environment Ministry has begun a project to move about 160 wild elephants, currently roaming the public roads in the Kurunegala district, back to protected areas. The action is meant to save the lives of both humans and beasts.According to Environment Minister A.H.M. Fowzie, the main goal of the project is to minimize conflict between man and elephant and save the lives of both. The wild elephants will be driven back to Wilpaththu and Thabbowa sanctuaries.
2005-07-25 - KINABATANGAN, Malaysia. TEOH TEIK HOONG
The 26,000ha Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in Sabah, billed as Malaysia’s “Gift to Earth”, is facing massive destruction. In the last four years alone, 20% of the 100-million-year-old forest has been estimated to have been cleared, threatening endangered animal species like the Borneo pygmy elephants, orang utans, proboscis monkeys and hornbills.
2005-07-25 - Sydney, Australia.
A deal to bring eight Thai elephants to two Australian zoos has been met with a stinging rebuke from an English-language Bangkok newspaper. The Nation has slammed the transaction as shabby and corrupt. It says the sale has been condemned by wildlife groups in both countries - who say the animals should remain in their native habitat and not be sent abroad.
2005-07-25 - Vienna, United States.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® today announced it will fund ongoing research on endotheliotropic herpes viruses (EEHV) being conducted by the National Elephant Herpesvirus Laboratory at the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoological Park. The $180,000 gift will be distributed over the next three years to support the National Zoo's efforts toward treating, and ultimately curing, this typically fatal disease in young Asian elephants.
2005-07-24 - BANGALORE, India.
In the wake of increased poaching incidents during monsoon, the forest department has decided to ban all forest trails during the monsoon. Till next order, all kinds of visits to forests by tourists, jungle trekking, core area hiking and other forest adventures, have been banned. The decision followed two encounters by the forest department with the poachers near Kalkere range in Bandipur tiger reserves, where six hard-core poachers from Kerala were arrested.
2005-07-23 - Bhubaneswar, India.
A crude bomb being carried in a lunch box to chase marauding elephants away from fields exploded in an Orissa village, killing one and injuring three. Five people from Kadua village in Dhenkanal district, 150 km from here, had gone to their fields on the outskirts of the village Friday night. To chase away elephants, one of them was carrying a bomb inside his lunchbox, which exploded, a district police official told IANS on telephone. While one man died instantly, three people were critically in...
2005-07-22 - Panaji, India.
The Chief Minister, Mr Pratapsing Rane today said that the Karnataka government has agreed to send five trained elephants to tame three wild elephants which had caused extensive damage to the plantations in Sal, Mencurem, Adval Pal, Latambarcem, Pirna and Nadora villages of Bicholim and Bardez talukas.
2005-07-21 - Bangkok, Thailand.
Eight elephants will stay in Thailand for at least another week while their fate is decided in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal(AAT). The AAT granted an interim order preventing the importation of the animals earmarked for Sydney's Taronga and Melbourne's zoos. The federal government gave the go-ahead for the beasts, who have been held in quarantine in Thailand for nine months, to be brought to Australia.
A SHOWCASE of work by young Thai artists - and elephants - will be unveiled in Edinburgh today. Vicky Khunapramot, a business graduate from Napier University, is pioneering the launch of the Capital's first Thai art exhibition. It will feature extraordinary abstract paintings by elephants from Northern Thailand's conservation parks. Ms Khunapramot said the elephants' contributions would reflect a "unique" aspect of Thai culture.
2005-07-21 - Gaborone, Botswana.
Citizen hunters have bought 10 elephants in the Mmadinare area after an offer by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP). A public notice from the department said the elephants to be hunted in a controlled area CT 27 within a radius of 40km of Mmadinare village were sold for P8, 000 each.
2005-07-21 - Chicago, United States.
A zoo association's investigation into why a 36-year-old African elephant collapsed while being trucked from a Chicago zoo to one in Utah where it died, identified "several concerns" but found no gross negligence by the animal's handlers. The animal, named Wankie, was among three African elephants that lived at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park outside Escondido until 2003, when they were moved to Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. The pachyderms still belonged to the Escondido animal park.
2005-07-20 - Sydney, Australia. Mark Bannerman
KERRY O'BRIEN: At nine o'clock this Sydney and Melbourne zoos popped the champagne corks when they got word that they had finally received government approval to import eight Asian elephants. They are, after all, an endangered species. The idea is to take these endangered elephants from Thailand and give them a new home in the hope that, with good treatment and scientific help, they will reproduce.
2005-07-20 - Johannesburg, South Africa. Duncan Guy
Elephant conservation should be considered in much the same way humans consider plans for their own health and well-being, an elephant management workshop heard on Tuesday. Sociality, which is the conservation of social structures and processes, has largely been ignored in conservation, according to a paper by Gay Bradshaw of Oregon State University and Allan Schore of the University of California.
2005-07-20 - BEIJING, China.
A recent study predicts that more male Asian elephants in China will be born without tusks because poaching of tusked elephants is reducing the gene pool. Research by Zhang Li, an associate professor of zoology with the college of life sciences at Beijing Normal University, discovered that the gene for tusklessness is spreading among the endangered species in its habitat in Yunnan Province of southwest China, said China Daily.
2005-07-19 - Baripada, India.
Two wild elephants from Chandavilla forest range of West Bengal's Midnapore district have sneaked into Orissa's Mayurbhanj district and caused depredations in several villages under Deuli forest range. According to Acting Field Director of STR (Simlipal Tiger Reserve) Jitendra Kumar, the two migrant elephants- one adult bull and an adult cow elephant- have damaged eight houses in the three villages located on their migration route.
2005-07-19 - Sabah, Malaysia.
Electronic tagging of pygmy elephants aims to solve an ancient mystery, writes VIJAY JOSHI. CROUCHED in the vine-tangled forest of Borneo, where the brightest part of the day seems like dusk, Elis Tambing finally got the elusive animal in his laser sight and fired. The pink-quilled dart found its mark: the rump of the female pygmy elephant, a unique and endangered animal found only in Sabah.
2005-07-18 - Beijing, China.
More male Asian elephants will be born without tusks because poaching of tusked elephants is reducing the gene pool, Chinese researchers say. The tusk-free gene, which is found in between 2 and 5% percent of male Asian elephants, has increased to between 5 and 10% in elephants in China, says zoology researcher Associate Professor Zhang Li, from Beijing Normal University.
2005-07-17 - Thrissur, India.
In a majestic spectacle, 47 elephants were today fed a sumptuous feast on the occasion of the annual 'Anayoottu' - feeding of elephants - on the premises of the Vadakkunnathan temple here today. Hundreds of devotees and others thronged the temple premises to witness the show since early morning as the jumbos, herded from different parts of the state, lined up to partake in the feast.
2005-07-16 - Hollywood, United States.
Teri Hatcher has reportedly been caught up in a terrifying elephant stampede. The former James Bond girl and her seven-year-old daughter were on safari in Africa when a herd of elephants charged towards them. The scared pair realised they were in trouble when their guide started their jeep and yelled 'stampede', according to Britain's Daily Sport newspaper.
2005-07-14 - Nairobi, Kenya. Jackson Mwalulu
Assistant Minister Danson Mungatana wants his constituents to kill all the rogue elephants straying into Garsen. This makes perfect sense. Wildlife should never take precedence over human beings. The importance of wildlife to this country cannot be gainsaid. Increasingly, however, it would appear the Government supports the Kenya Wildlife Service's antipathy towards striking a balance between taking care of wild animals and protecting people.
2005-07-13 - Panaji, India.
The deputy conservator of forests, Mr C D Singh today forwarded a proposal to the chief wildlife warden, Goa, requesting for hiring the services of Kunki elephants and organising joint operations with the forest departments of Goa and Maharashtra as well as the locals from both sides of the border, to guide the elephants which are currently disturbing the North Goa village of Nadora, back to their natural habitat.
2005-07-12 - Nairobi, Kenya. Jonathan Manyindo
Tourism minister Morris Dzoro and his assistant, Mr Boniface Mganga, have differed over plans to move 400 elephants from Kwale to Tsavo East National Park. The minister said last Friday that the transfer would go on despite resistance from the local community. But Mr Mganga is opposed to the move without local people being consulted and being told how they would benefit from tourism earnings.
2005-07-12 - Guruvayur, India.
A tusker's beauty is in its tusks but if it is lost, this “elephant dentist” has the answer. Sankaranarayanan, a mahout in the famous Sree Krishna temple, Guruvayoor in Thrissur district, has found a new way of adding beauty to a tusker by fixing artificial tusks. Balakrishnan, Lakshmanan, Rajasekharan and Chandrasekharan, and Umadevi, all jumbos of the Guruvayoor Devaswom, now have “duplicate tusks” affixed by Sankaranarayanan.
2005-07-12 - BANKURA, India.
Three elephants went on a rampage in four villages near Bishnupur town last night. The forest officials of Panchet Soil Conservation Division rushed to the affected villages today to assess the extent of damages. The elephant herd had meanwhile fled to the jungle. The herd had entered Choukan village — about 12 km from Bishnupur town — about nine p.m last night.
2005-07-11 - Sydney, Australia. Andrew Darby
Doubts have been raised by animal welfare groups over the origins of some Asian elephants bound for Melbourne and Sydney zoos, with Environment Minister Ian Campbell still to approve their importation. The groups say there is reason for concern over papers showing the eight elephants are all captive-bred, rather than caught in the wild.
2005-07-11 - London, United Kingdom.
Listening devices developed more than three decades ago by the United States to monitor enemy troops movements through the jungle of Vietnam are being deployed to count elephants in the thick bushes of Namibia's Etosha National Park. Researchers under Jason Wood from Stanford University in California set up a test device called a geophone near a game path leading to a watering hole in the vast park.
2005-07-09 - CHENNAI, India. P. Oppili
The month-old male calf elephant, rescued from Sathyamangalam Forest after it was abandoned by its mother, is not yet stable, P.C. Tyagi, Director, Arignar Anna Zoological Park (AAZP), Vandalur, said here on Friday. Mr Tyagi said: "The animal is still bony but we have controlled the diarrhoea. It will take at least 15-20 days for its health to stabilise."
2005-07-07 - MALACCA, Malaysia. VINCENT TAN
Five young elephants, with metal chains around their necks, caused a stir at a housing estate in Malim Jaya when the residents saw the animals grazing at a nearby vacant lot. Officials from the Wildlife and National Parks Department and the Malacca Zoo quickly rushed to the area and found that the animals were part of a travelling show that recently performed at the San Pedro fest in the Portuguese settlement here.
2005-07-07 - Nairobi, Kenya. Solomon Laboso and Isaac Ongiri
Suspected poachers have killed several elephants at Namnyak and Sarara wildlife conservancies in Wambaa and Waso divisions of Samburu District. An official, Tom Letiwa, said Kenya Wildlife Service rangers found some of the elephants without tusks. He blamed poaching in Samburu, Isiolo, Marsabit, Laikipia and Meru North districts on illegal firearms.
2005-07-06 - Bollington, United Kingdom. Gavin Hird
A TEN-year-old boy from Bollington has launched a campaign to secure the release from captivity of the last performing circus elephant in the UK. Zac Rich was so disgusted when he read a national newspaper report describing the “horrific” conditions the elephant called Annie is forced to live in, that he decided to take action.
2005-07-05 - Luanda, Angola.
A region made impassable by civil war in recent decades will be cleared of landmines to allow huge elephant herds to resume their normal spread in southern Africa, Roots of Peace (RoP) and Conservation International (CI) announced today. The U.S.-based non-profit organizations are partners in a project to remove landmines sown during Angola's 26-year civil war from critical access corridors used by elephants between northern Botswana and prime wildlife regions in Angola and Zambia. Once the land...
2005-07-05 - Vienna, Virginia, United States. Feld Entertainment, Inc.
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® Center for Elephant Conservation (CEC) today announced the birth of a healthy 314-pound male Asian elephant on June 1, 2005. The calf was born to 29-year-old mother Alana after only four hours of labor. The newborn is Alana’s fourth calf, and was fathered by Charlie, an Asian elephant sire at the CEC.
2005-07-03 - Sumatra, Malaysia.
AT first glance, the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary almost seems like a theme park where visitors get a chance to ride the elephants and feed them with baskets of luscious fruits. There is even an opportunity to cool off with the elephants in the river during the heat of the day. These, however, are some of the eco-tourism activities that are meant to generate more awareness of the plight of these animals.
2005-07-03 - Pittsburgh, United States. Linda Wilson Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
He walks amid giants without fear or trepidation. He doesn't bully or hit his charges, who are the six elephants at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. The smallest, a bull calf named Calee, weighs about 3,000 pounds. The largest, a bull named Jackson, weighs more than 10,000 pounds. Willie Theison doesn't give orders. He makes polite requests. "Move up," Theison says, inviting elephants, one at a time, to line up for daily baths. His voice, soft and calm, is louder than a whisper, but not by muc...
2005-07-03 - Skukuza, South Africa.
African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are mixed feeders, incorporating varying proportions of grass and browse into their diets. Disagreement persists as to whether elephants preferentially graze or browse, and the degree to which the consumption of these foods is a reflection of their local availability. We used stable carbon isotope analysis of feces to investigate seasonal and spatial variation in the diets of elephants from Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa.
2005-07-02 - Okavango, Botswana. Sandi Groves, Grey Matters
Internship leading to the possibility of a Permanent Position in the wilderness area of the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Elephant handling of one male and two female African elephants, husbandry and interpretation of elephant biology and behavior for international guests, camp maintenance and daily operations.
2005-07-01 - Waterford, Ireland. David O’Mahony
A KERRYMAN is in a “stable but comfortable” condition in Waterford Regional Hospital after being gored by an elephant in Tramore. The animal was part of Circus New York, which has now left the area. Paul Dineen, 35, from Ballyheigue in Co Kerry, underwent emergency surgery on Sunday. He worked at the circus as a rigger, putting up the big top.
2005-07-01 - Chickmagalur, India.
The recently held census of elephants in the Bhadra reserve forest has thrown up some interesting facts. According the census report, the ratio of male and female is 1:2. That means the female population is twice that of the male population. Bhadra Wildlife Section, which completed the census process recently, has forwarded the report to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc)in Bangalore.
2005-06-30 - Borneo, Malaysia. Vijay Joshi
Crouched in the vine-tangled forest of Borneo, where the brightest part of the day seems like dusk, Elis Tambing finally got the elusive animal in his laser sight and fired. The pink-quilled dart found its mark: the rump of the female pygmy elephant, a unique and endangered animal found only in Malaysia’s Sabah state on Borneo Island. Two more shots and the gentle giant, nicknamed Taliwas after the forest where she lives, dozed off standing up, tranquilized for half an hour, ready to be electr...
2005-06-30 - Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Madad insurance agency has insured two Asian elephants named Prince and Princess, which were delivered to Tashkent zoo from Malaysia. Taking into account the specific character of insurance object, specialists of the insurance company faced some problems when coming to an agreement with administration of the zoo and veterinary service.
2005-06-29 - Kaziranga, India. Bano Haralu
In Assam, the government has licensed stone quarrying which involves noisy blasting in a reserve forest area that serves as an elephant corridor near Kaziranga National Park. This has resulted in elephants using tea estates as thorough fare, leading to inevitable man animal conflict – angry wild elephants have been attacking the locals.
2005-06-29 - KASANE, Botswana.
According to wildlife biologist Frederick Dipotso, the cause of death is yet to be diagnosed. He said in the past two months they have identified 20 elephant carcasses of which five were in the Chobe River. "We managed to pull out two which were nearer to the river bank." He said the surveillance team found less than 10 buffalo carcasses.
2005-06-28 - Knysna, South Africa. Jo-Ann Bekker
The killing of an elephant minder at the Knysna Elephant Park raises questions about whether these mammals should be kept in captivity, particularly when they have survived the trauma of a culling. These are the views of Gareth Patterson, who has been studying the small herd of wild elephants in the Knysna forest since 2001. He said the job of elephant trainer or keeper was judged the most dangerous in America, according to statistics kept by the United States bureau of labour. Tobias Ndlovu, 32...
2005-06-27 - Hoedspruit, South Africa.
South Africa made veterinary history in the world by successfully conducting vasectomies on four elephants at Makalali near Hoedspruit in Limpopo. The operation was a second attempt by the local and foreign veterinary teams in about four months. There is a concern on elephant population increase in Africa where research has revealed a threat to the biodiversity of some national parks on the continent.
2005-06-27 - Guwahati, India.
Two people were trampled to death by wild elephants and a pachyderm was brutally speared to death by angry villagers in Assam, wildlife officials Monday said. A wildlife warden said six elephants entered the Letukajan tea garden in Golaghat district, about 300 km east of the state's main city of Guwahati, on Sunday.
2005-06-27 - Geneva, Switzerland.
Unregulated markets are continuing to trade ivory openly throughout Africa, an international wildlife monitoring network said ahead of a meeting on Monday at the organisation regulating the global trade in elephant tusks. The network run by the environmental group WWF and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) called on the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) to toughen plans for a clampdown on domestic ivory markets.
2005-06-27 - Borneo, Malaysia. Jan Vertefeuille, WWF
The collaring team from the Sabah Wildlife Department in Malaysia and WWF's Borneo office are used to the jungle. I was fortunate enough to spend a few days with them to collar five elephants in June. Putting collars on the elephants will be a huge step forward in scientists' understanding of the pygmy elephants and the collars will make keeping track of them much easier for WWF, the only conservation organization working to protect the population.
2005-06-26 - Metro Detroit, United States. JOHN GALLAGHER
Many people know that Hannibal was a Carthaginian general who led his army, including war elephants, across the Alps to attack Rome a couple of centuries before the Christian era began. But to get the feel of that campaign, to sit around the campfires of a multi-ethnic force teeming with rivalries and ambitions, takes more than a dry history.
2005-06-26 - TRIVANDRUM, India.
After the hectic festival schedule, it is time for rejuvenation for the elephants in Punnathur Elephant sanctuary, which is one of largest captive elephant homes in the world. Veterinary doctors are ready to take charge of the 62 elephants with a strict health care regime for 30 days from July 1. A major feature of the annual health care given during monsoon, when elephants are mostly indolent, is Kerala's traditional rejuvenative or restorative therapy.
2005-06-25 - Johannesburg, South Africa.
The number of elephants taken from the wild and used in elephant-back safaris has reached a crisis level, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) said. The NSPCA is calling for the government to intervene, as applications from operators flood in, said Rick Allan, manager of the organisation's wildlife unit.
2005-06-23 - Hugo, Oklahoma, United States.
A federal judge has cleared the way for four elephants to come to The Endangered Ark, a non-profit foundation. However, an appeal being considered by an animal rights group known for its publicity-generating stunts could be forthcoming. U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled Tuesday that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has no legal standing to intervene in the move, which has not yet been scheduled.
2005-06-23 - Johannesburg, South Africa.
An elephant handler was killed by a bull elephant at the Knysna Elephant Park on Tuesday during a morning excursion, the International Fund for Animal Welfare said on Wednesday. The incident at the park also raises questions regarding the safety of South Africa's burgeoning elephant-back safari and tourism industry, said Ifaw spokesperson Christina Pretorius in a statement.
2005-06-22 - Tucson, United States.
Tucson City Council members say they want to keep the elephants at Reid Park Zoo. Now, they'll have to come up with a plan to expand their pen, so the elephants can be bred. It looks as though Connie and Shaba will see more Tucson summers. That means zoo-goers will be able to see them. "I read the brochure that they had that they were thinking of maybe sending her someplace else, and it's great to have her here," said Mimi Cosentino, a visitor to the zoo.
2005-06-22 - Johannesburg, South Africa.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) has called for South Africa's growing elephant-back safari and tourism industry to be stopped immediately. Jason Bell-Leask, Ifaw's director in Southern Africa, said: "It needs to be stopped, and it needs to be stopped now."
2005-06-21 - Nairobi, Kenya.
A Tourism assistant minister has opposed plans to transfer 400 elephants from Kwale District to Tsavo East National Park. "Both Tsavo East and West parks have about 10,000 elephants and adding some more will be adding insult to injury," Mr Boniface Mganga said yesterday. According to him, a leaders' meeting to discuss the transfer of the elephants failed to take place on Saturday because a Kenya Wildlife Service director did not inform the Ministry of Tourism on time.
2005-06-20 - TOKYO, Japan.
Japanese scientists said Friday that DNA tests have shown that the prehistoric woolly mammoth is more closely related to Asian elephants than to their African counterparts, settling a long-running debate over the lineage of the giant animals that went extinct 10,000 years ago. Nagoya University professor Tomoo Ozawa and his team examined muscle tissue DNA taken from a woolly mammoth excavated in Siberia and determined that the animal and Asiatic elephants branched off from the same ancestor 4.8 ...
2005-06-20 - Portland, Oregon, United States. PR Oregon Zoo
With no small amount of trumpeting and fanfare-on the part of the elephants, that is-the Oregon Zoo welcomed a new addition to its elephant herd today. Tusko, a 13,500-pound, 33-year-old male Asian elephant, arrived at 6 a.m. and joined Packy and Rama in the zoo's bull elephant group. Upon completion of his required quarantine period, Tusko will make his first public appearance in Oregon in about one month.
2005-06-19 - San Diego, United States. Jeanette Steele
They are a natural spectacle: elephants, with their flapping ears and loose skin like baggy trousers. Many people grew up watching these graceful giants at zoos. But recent controversies in several cities across the country – including the deaths of three elephants that once lived at the San Diego Zoo – spotlight an issue that animal rights advocates are rallying around: Is it humane to keep the largest land mammal on an acre or less, as many zoos do? That question is fast bec...
2005-06-18 - Etosha National Park, Namibia. Fiona Proffitt
American scientists have come up with a hi-tech method of surveying elephants, using military-designed seismic sensors to detect their footsteps. Researchers from the Geophysics Department at Stanford University used the sensors to monitor African elephants and other large mammals in Etosha National Park, Namibia.
2005-06-17 - Tucson, United States. Jim Becker
Shaba and Connie have been at home at the Reid Park Zoo since most of us can remember. The City of Tucson wants to keep the two elephants, and a lot of Tucson seem to agree. It seems Shaba and Connie are like family. Their handlers have gotten to know them pretty well. Visitors young and old alike know something about them.
2005-06-17 - Portland, Oregon, United States.
Packy, the beloved Asian elephant of the Oregon Zoo, has taken home the 2005 title of Zoo Father of the Year. The Zoo Father of the Year award is special for the pachyderm clan because Packy is the only second-generation captive bull elephant in the world to become a successful father. Two of his offspring, Rama and Sung-Surin, still live with him at the zoo. Oregon Zoo Director Tony Vecchio viewed the Zoo Father of the Year vote as an opportunity to educate the public about Asian elephants
2005-06-16 - KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia. RUBEN SARIO
Sabah will continue losing its Borneo pygmy elephants unless it takes concrete measures to protect the animals. These steps, Sabah honorary wildlife ranger Datuk Wilfred Lingham said, included the establishment of a wildlife corridor by rehabilitating riverine forests along Sungai Kinabatangan, where the elephants’ habitats were shrinking as oil palm plantations continued to expand.
2005-06-16 - Nairobi, Kenya. Margaret Oganda
Did you know that baby elephants like to play with sticks and stones? And that they can even play with rubber tubes and balls? These calves are also very friendly, and can become friends with girls and boys. Once one becomes your friend, it will remember you for a long, long time. One sunny morning, pupils from Rosamystica Academy in Mathare, in Nairobi had a special treat: A trip to a place where nine baby elephants live. Their names are Kora, nine months, Buchuma, 12 months , Ndomot, 17 months...
2005-06-15 - OKLAHOMA CITY, United States.
Former "Golden Girls" actress Rue McClanahan is trying to prevent four elephants from being transferred from Chicago to Hugo, Okla. because they were exposed to another animal with tuberculosis. McClanahan, an Oklahoma native, said she would prefer the four elephants be sent to the Elephant Sanctuary, a 2,700-acre preserve in Hohenwald, Tenn. McClanahan, an honorary director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), wrote a letter to state Rep. Ray McCarter, a Democr...
2005-06-14 - Söderkulla, Finland. Eirik Granqvist
The first mammoth skeleton to be mounted was that of "Adams mammoth" found at the shores of Lena in the late seventeen hundred. It got the left tusk to the right side and the right to the left! Looking very funny and giving model for plenty of very rongly drawed and reconstructed mammoths. Adams mammoth was shown like this in the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg until just after the second world war when the tusks where moved to their correct sides!
2005-06-13 - Salt Lake City, United States.
There are “big” things happening at Hogle Zoo this summer. The Zoo has opened its largest new animal exhibit in 25 years, the “Elephant Encounter” which brings a part of the Serengeti to Salt Lake City in the re-creation of an African plain featuring three African elephants and two white rhinoceros.
2005-06-12 - Kota Kinabalu, Indonesia.
It may be necessary to relocate Sabah's pygmy elephants if they are to survive. Deputy State Wildlife Department Director Laurentius Ambu said such options could help reduce the number of elephants in certain "hotspots," hence allowing better control. Hotspots are where plantations or even villages are located close to wildlife reserves or forests.
2005-06-09 - Western Plains, Australia. Andrew Dunkley
They're awesome creatures and Western Plains Zoo is the only zoo in Australia that exhibits both African and Asian elephants. The new arrivals from Taronga, Heman and Burma are Asians and they've taken very well to their new surroundings. What's more they are sharing their new home for the first time. While in Sydney they were always housed separately.
2005-06-09 - Jaipur, India.
The city's elephants, especially those ferrying tourists, will soon be able to catch a breath and enjoy a leisurely bath in a pond that the state government plans to build near the Amber Fort. There are 105 elephants in the city, of which 50 are used to ferry tourists to and from the fort situated atop a hill on the outskirts of Rajasthan's historic capital.
2005-06-08 - New Delhi, India. Peter Foster
Conservationists are using military-style tactics to protect one of the world's largest Asian elephant populations. An early warning system which uses trip wires, smoke bombs and ropes smeared in a pungent form of chilli that can make even an elephant's eyes water, aims to deter the animals from entering villages in search of easy food. The project in Assam, north-east India, is partly funded by Chester Zoo.
2005-06-08 - JOHANNESBURG, South Africa.
Elephants are back in South Africa's semi-arid Karoo region for the first time in more than 150 years, adding new life to a harsh environment that saw much of its large wildlife exterminated long ago. The family group of 12 elephants was relocated from South Africa's Kruger National Park to Kuzuko, a 14,500 hectare (35,830 acres) nature reserve on the Karoo's southern boundary.
2005-06-08 - AUGSBURG, Germany.
The addition of black actor in grass skirts to the elephant and rhino exhibits at a zoo in Augsberg, Germany, has sparked accusations of exploitation. Brochures for an upcoming 3-day promotion called "Discover the Dark Continent," the zoo plans to hire blacks to conduct traditional African activities such as basket-weaving, woodwork and various rituals such as tribal dancing, The Scotsman said Wednesday.
2005-06-07 - Jorhat, India. PULLOCK DUTTA
Hundreds of people from several villages in upper Majuli island are spending sleepless nights guarding their ahu crop from a marauding herd of elephants. Ahu is the main crop for the islanders, harvested just before the floods which hit the island every year. It has turned into a do-or-die situation for the islanders to protect the crop from the pachyderms. The villagers have set up generators on the embankments to prevent the beasts from crossing over them and entering the fields at night. The ...
2005-06-06 - Tucson, United States.
The star's view: The mayor and council will likely consider a resolution committing the city to an expansion of the elephant habitat at the zoo. It should pass. It appears Tucson's elephants could get the support they need to stay at the Reid Park Zoo. The City Council likely will consider a resolution that would pledge Tucson's commitment to expand and improve the elephant habitat by a July 1 deadline.
2005-06-06 - Houston, United States. SALATHEIA BRYANT
Two hours before opening, handlers at the Houston Zoo busily prepare Thai, Shanti and Methai — their Asian elephant herd — for another day on exhibit and another day in captivity. The pachyderms are on exhibit 365 days a year, in a 25,000-square-foot enclosure, with a wooden platform that allows visitors to watch them wander around.
2005-06-06 - El Paso, United States. Elizabeth O'Hara
Animal rights activists say it's a rare occasion to hear Juno trumpeting in her El Paso Zoo habitat. They say too often, she and Savannah, the area's only elephants, spend their days endlessly swaying out of the boredom and frustration they get from living at the zoo. "When you go down and see Savannah and Juno standing in their small enclosure with very little shade and not moving around a lot, I'm not sure that teaches children anything," said Marilie Sage, who heads up the local group, "Conce...
2005-06-06 - Guwahati, India.
An unsuspecting wild Asiatic elephant that had strayed onto a railway track was mowed down by a speeding passenger train in Assam, officials said Monday. A railway official said the accident took place Sunday near Patharkhula village in eastern Assam, about 160 km from the state's main city of Guwahati. "The Kamrup Express was travelling at a high speed when an adult elephant came on the track. The animal was sliced into two pieces and died almost instantly," B. Das, a railway official said.
2005-06-06 - Vienna, Virginia, United States. Feld Entertainment, Inc.
The 38-year-old mother, Mala, delivered a healthy 310-pound female Asian elephant calf at 9:40 p.m. on April 21, 2005, after just 40 minutes of labor. The newborn is Mala’s sixth calf, and was fathered by Charlie, an Asian elephant sire at the CEC. An unprecedented seventeenth birth for the Ringling Bros. CEC.
2005-06-05 - Meru, Kenya. Meera Selva
Animal lovers around the world will soon be able to go online and track their favourite elephants as they move around the Kenyan bush through mobile phone technology.Elephants in some national parks are being fitted with SIM card collars that send a text message telling wardens exactly where the elephants are every hour. That information will soon be available over the internet, and accessible to people who choose to sponsor an animal or make a donation to charity.
2005-06-03 - Palo Alto, United States. Brian Handwerk
Elephants are being pushed into smaller and smaller spaces. And increasingly, they're pushing back. According to the National Geographic Channel documentary Elephant Rage, some 500 people are killed by elephant attacks each year. Such attacks are becoming increasingly common, researchers say.
2005-06-02 - Salt Lake City, United States. Amelia Nielson-Stowell,Deseret Morning News
Misha, a 7,240-pound elephant, was the VIP (or "Very Important Pachyderm") to cut the ribbon on Hogle Zoo's new Elephant Encounter exhibit Wednesday.A 110,000-gallon swimming channel, varying terrain, three separate yards and a heated surface area are part of the $5.5 million naturalistic habitat for African elephants Misha, Christie and Hi-Dari and white rhinos George and Princess.
2005-06-02 - Illinois, United States. Martha Moore
The fate of a dozen elephants in Illinois has become part of the debate over whether wild animals in captivity are being cared for properly — and even whether they can be — far from their natural habitat. (Related story: Neglect claims hamper zoos) Elephants owned by Hawthorn Corp., which rents elephants and lions to circuses, have been bound for new homes since Hawthorn reached an agreement last year with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Hawthorn in Richmond, Ill., admitted to 19 violati...
2005-06-01 - TUCSON, United States.
Reid Park Zoo needs money for a new elephant enclosure. If it doesn't get it, it will lose the two elephants it has. Sheba, one of the Tucson zoo's two elephants, is in her prime breeding stage. But the zoo's elephant enclosure is less than one-half-acre and isn't large enough to accommodate new residents. Zoo officials want to build a new seven-acre enclosure at a cost of eight (m) million dollars.
2005-06-01 - Lusaka, Zambia. Chansa Kabwela
THE government's introduction of elephant sport hunting is aimed at benefiting Zambians, tourism minister Patrick Kalifungwa has said. And Kalifungwa urged people involved in the movement of forest produce to follow the right procedures as requested by law. Announcing the introduction of elephant sport hunting in Chiawa, Rufunsa and Lupande game management areas yesterday, Kalifungwa said elephants were of very high economic value and should benefit the local community to compensate for the loss...
2005-06-01 - Amboseli, Kenya.
Elephants learn to imitate sounds that are not typical of their species, the first known example after humans of vocal learning in a non-primate terrestrial mammal. The discovery, reported in today's Nature, further supports the idea that vocal learning is important for maintaining individual social relationships among animals that separate and reunite over time, like dolphins and whales, some birds, and bats. Researchers from the Amboseli Trust for Elephants in Kenya, the Woods Hole Oceanograph...
2005-06-01 - Lake Buena Vista, United States. Neiffer DL, Miller MA, Weber M, Stetter M, Fontenot DK, Robbins PK, Pye GW. Disney's Animal Programs, Walt Disney World
Standing sedation was provided for 14 clinical procedures in three African elephants (Loxodonta africana) managed by combined protected and modified-protected contact and trained through operant conditioning. An initial hand-injection of detomidine hydrochloride and butorphanol tartrate at a ratio of 1:1 on a microg:microg basis was administered intramuscularly, with a dosage range of 50-70 mg (12.9-19.7 microg/kg) for each drug.
2005-05-31 - ASHEBORO, United States.
The North Carolina Zoo will soon have one of the nation's premiere elephant exhibits. In August, construction will start to double the size of the exhibit. The elephant population will also quadruple from three to 12. Many elephant exhibits are closing nationwide because there is not enough space for them to live properly.
2005-05-30 - Illinois, United States. Marc Kaufman
More than two years ago, federal officials concluded that 16 elephants owned by an Illinois circus-animal training business were being mistreated and had to be removed quickly. Facing the possible loss of his license to keep circus animals, the owner of Hawthorn Corp. formally agreed last year to give up his elephants as soon as a new home could be found. Fourteen months after that unprecedented agreement, however, most of the animals remain in an enclosed barn in rural Illinois, their future st...
2005-05-27 - El Paso, United States.
Zoo volunteers are now collecting signatures, petitioning city council to keep Juno and Savannah in El Paso. As we reported, animal rights activists say they've sent about 2 thousand postcards to the mayor's office in the last two and a half weeks asking council to remove the elephants and send them to a sanctuary in Tennessee.
2005-05-25 - ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast. Loucoumane Coulibaly
Terrified by war and hounded by poachers, many of Ivory Coast's remaining elephants have packed their trunks and trundled off to more peaceful neighbours. "Elephant populations have gone to Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana since the outbreak of war. Wildlife officials in those countries have told us so," said Denis Amani Kouame, head of wildlife at Ivory Coast's agriculture ministry.
2005-05-24 - London, United Kingdom.
BILLY SMART Jr, scion of the famous circus family, was a distinguished trainer of horses, but he will be most widely remembered for his ambitious elephant acts, which featured up to 20 full-grown Asiatic elephants. As the baby of the family, Billy Jr was the most indulged. It was said that it was on a whim that Billy Sr and Dolly Smart bought him a complete circus while out driving one Sunday — a costly yet typically big gesture of the showman to his youngest son.
2005-05-24 - Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. Frederick Philander
People love elephants, and according to a new national poll, most U.S. adults agree that seeing elephants and rhinos in real life fosters a greater appreciation of these majestic animals. According to opinion poll results released by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) today, 95 percent of U.S. adults agree that seeing elephants and rhinos helps people appreciate them more and encourages people to learn more about them and 93 percent agree that it is important that a marine life park...
2005-05-23 - Seoul, South Korea. Park Su-ryon
The barbecue restaurant that got a surprise visit from three elephants last month has become a very popular place since reopening last week. The eastern Seoul eatery was closed for a month after the April 21 incident, in which three elephants that had escaped from a nearby zoo burst in, overturning tables and breaking windows. The restaurant's owner, Geum Taek-hun, used the 18 million won ($18,000) she received in insurance compensation to remodel the shop. She also changed the name to "Restaura...
2005-05-23 - ARUSHA, Tanzania.
Marauding elephants continue to cause havoc in northern Tanzania, where they have destroyed 80 hectares of crops and disrupted learning for children who now have to be escorted to school, an official told IRIN on Monday. "Some parents are even afraid to escort their children for treatment in clinics for fear of encountering the animals," said Anthony Malley, the district commissioner for Monduli, northwest of the region's main town, Arusha.
2005-05-22 - Bandipur, India.
Wildlife guide Jayaram Harsha heaves a heavy sigh as he talks about his recent work counting male elephants in southern India. The numbers are down and, he fears, may one day be out. "It is alarming," says Harsha, who says poachers who still kill elephants for their ivory tusks may have decimated the population. This will be determined by the largest ever census of India's Asian elephant population which began recently.
2005-05-20 - Lucknow, India.
Alarmed by reports of the depleting tiger population in the country, Uttaranchal has begun a three-day census to count the elephants living in the state. The census was started on Thursday and would be completed by Saturday. The last census in 2003 estimated a population of 1,582 elephants in the state.
2005-05-17 - Woodbury, United States.
Police answering a complaint about parked vehicles blocking Schunnemunk Road outside Kiryas Joel Sunday night came across an unexpected scene at the unoccupied Achdus Summer Homes bungalow colony. There, at around 6:30 p.m., they found an elephant lumbering and prancing for the delight of 400 to 500 people as circus music played through loudspeakers, police Sgt. Cliff Weeks said. Parked in the vicinity were roughly 50 to 70 cars, a tractor-trailer truck, a dozen school buses and a Kiryas Joel fi...
2005-05-16 - Oregon, United States. AP
Chendra, a ton and a half of Asian elephant, strolls along paths usually busy with families of visitors to the Oregon Zoo. The zoo has six elephants, and she is one of three trained to walk the grounds before visitors arrive. That's important for an elephant program, but the program may be facing problems.
2005-05-15 - Johannesburg, South Africa. Mike Cadman
Should we be capturing wild elephants in South Africa and training them to be ridden by people or to walk alongside them as part of our tourism industry? Some see nothing wrong with the idea and believe it promotes tourism and conservation, but others believe keeping elephants is captivity is cruel, potentially dangerous and merely a money-making exercise.
2005-05-15 - Thiruvananthapuram, India. Rosamma Jose
Appu the elephant, who had become closely identified as the celebrity mascot of the Delhi Asian Games in 1982, died at the age of 29 in Kerala’s famous temple town of Guruvayoor yesterday. The end, which came around 12 noon, put a closure to a decade of pain and suffering that the animal underwent since its tragic fall into a septic tank while being led to a temple festival in 1992.
2005-05-15 - Brownsville, United States. KEVIN GARCIA, Brownsville Herald
Having worked with almost every animal at the Gladys Porter Zoo since before it opened in 1971, the 63-year-old general curator Jerry Stones has come to know the zoo’s residents as family. As a result, the March 10 death of 41-year-old African elephant Macho, and subsequent birth of a young male orangutan on April 15, were significant events in his life — something that can be said for anyone who spends enough time with animals.
2005-05-14 - Sydney, Australia.
The head of Sydney's Taronga Zoo has rejected allegations a new elephant enclosure will not be appropriate for breeding the endangered animal. The $40 million enclosure is almost complete. It contains hot and cold showers and overhead heating for the elephants, which are to be imported from Thailand.
2005-05-14 - Chicago, United States. William Mullen and Jon Yate
Wankie, the last of three Lincoln Park Zoo elephants to die in a six-month period, had an undetected infection that reduced her lung capacity when she was shipped to Salt Lake City--a journey she did not survive. Zoo officials announced Friday that a preliminary pathology report showed Wankie had lung lesions that may have been caused by mycobacterium. Another of the zoo's elephants, 35-year-old Tatima, died in October of an infection of Mycobacterium szulgai, a rare, non-transmissable disease s...
2005-05-14 - Oregon, United States. Katy Muldoon
Chendra's hips swing gracefully as she hustles along the edge of the concert lawn, past the snow cone stand and up a gentle incline an hour before the Oregon Zoo's gates open. With each step, she leaves enormous round footprints on the dewy pavement. The 2,820-pound Asian elephant trots along paths typically busy with moms pushing strollers and dads toting toddlers. Of the zoo's six elephants, Chendra is one of three trained to walk around the grounds before visitors arrive.
2005-05-13 - LOS ANGELES, United States.
The elephants at the LA Zoo have always been popular with the public. But now the exhibit could be shut down if Antonio Villaraigosa is elected mayor,NBC4's Doug Kriegel reported. "I have believed for some time that a zoo is not an appropriate place for an animal as large as an elephant," Villaraigosa told Kriegel.
2005-05-12 - KOCHI, India.
The state Forest Department is considering to create a genetic database of elephant and tiger population in the state to counter the threat of poaching and secure sufficient scientific evidence for court convictions. The department has held talks in this regard with the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, the agency that premiered gathering of forensic evidence through DNA fingerprinting in the state.
2005-05-11 - Phoenix, United States. Dennis Wagner
The Phoenix Zoo has retained three independent experts to help resolve a dispute over who should have the final say on wildlife medical care and whether recent mistakes led to a series of deaths and health problems with animals. The controversy pits veterinarians against animal caretakers - keepers, curators and administrators - who are closest to the animals.
2005-05-11 - Massachusett, United States. Jon Brodkin, Daily News Staff
Animal rights activists are pressuring lawmakers to ban circus acts involving elephants, bears, lions and other wild or exotic animals, saying the creatures are forced to endure long travel and violent training techniques. A bill supported by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would make this the first state to ban using wild animals for entertainment, the group said. "Attacking the circus is like attacking motherhood and apple pie," said group President Larry Haw...
2005-05-09 - Jaipur, India.
Jaipur's majestic elephants, living symbols of Rajasthan's royal past, will soon see better days. Despite giving joy rides to tourists who flock at the historic Amber fort everyday, little has been done so far to take care of the jumbos. But now a special shelter is being made to save them from Jaipur's scorching heat, and an 'Elephant Village' will be created to cater to all their needs.
2005-05-08 - HOSUR, India.
The Forest Department kickstarted its elephant census work in Dharmapuri and Hosur forest divisions on Friday. It is after a gap of three years that a synchronised elephant census covering all southern states is being initiated, a top official in the department said. This is essential to avoid duplication of animal numbers due to result of migration to the neighbouring states, he added. For the first time, nearly 25 NCC cadets also joined the department in its census work this yea...
2005-05-08 - Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand.
For years, the sight of mahouts taking their elephants through urban areas in search of food and money has exasperated successive governments. But the solution to this and the illegal trade in elephants, according to the Wildlife Fund Thailand, could lie in new technology: DNA testing.
2005-05-07 - New Delhi, India.
The estimated population of elephants in the country has shown an increase from 25,877 in 1997 to 26,413 in 2002 when the last census was carried out. Elephants have been included in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 which prohibits their hunting and also trade in ivory. Export of ivory from the country is also banned. India is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which prohibits international trade in ivory an...
2005-05-07 - NEW YORK, United States. Jack Myers
Well known paleontologist and conservationist Robert Leakey says climatic changes in the wake of global warming and decreasing forest cover could threaten the existence of animals like elephants, tigers and the rhinoceroses. It could be larger threat than poaching, he adds. Leakey, a former director of Kenya's wildlife service, who has convened an environment conference at Stony Brook University, urged the setting up of a new global fund to protect wildlife.
2005-05-06 - TRIPUNITHURA, India.
The beautification of the tusks of elephants owned by the Cochin Devaswom Board is paving way for another controversy with the Forest Department registering a case against the Devaswom officials. Forest Department has registered a case against three persons, including the expert who beautified the tusks. “Action was taken against the officials because the Cochin Devaswom Board did not seek prior permission of the Forest Department to cut the tusks of the elephants,” said Kamaluddin, Kodanad ...
2005-05-05 - Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Blair Drummond safari park, Scotland, has an assistant keeper position open. Duties include looking after white rhino, giraffes, and 3 african elephants. Closing date is 20th may 2005.
2005-05-05 - Oslo, Norway.
A Polish man was rushed to hospital by helicopter after being squashed between two elephants in Oslo. The 46-year-old animal keeper at the Arnardo circus, which is currently on tour in Norway, was reportedly building a fence around the circus tent when he was suddenly squeezed between the two giant mammals. The man suffered serious injuries to his face and ribs as well as numerous fractures.
2005-05-04 - Sydney, Australia. Kate Murray
Although the elephants' "visa" application has not yet been approved by the Federal Government, animal rights groups have said they will challenge the application in court if the elephants do get the go-ahead. Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell said that could mean an extra slug for taxpayers, who have already forked out $40 million for a new elephants' enclosure.
2005-05-03 - Harare, Zimbabwe.
THE National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority yesterday said it is inviting new and old farmers to purchase wild elephants in a move aimed at decongesting elephant-concentrated areas. An official from the authority said the move was also aimed at encouraging new farmers to venture into wildlife production.The elephants are not for export but for wildlife farming by local farmers. The elephants have become heavily concentrated in Matabeleland region, and ecologists have recommended that th...
2005-05-03 - Lincoln, Illinois, United States. ANDREW HERRMANN
A City Council hearing on elephant conditions at Lincoln Park Zoo has been postponed - but that doesn't mean the heat is off for zoo officials, an alderman said Monday. Mary Ann Smith (48th), chair of the parks and recreation committee, has reset the hearing for after the postmortem examination of the animal "so we can get to the bottom of this.''
2005-05-03 - Zuerich, Switzerland. Zurich zoo
The Zurich zoo welcomes its new member of the elephant family: On Tuesday, 03 May 2005 at 8.55 am, an elephant baby was born. This new born female elephant shall be called Farha (luck, joy). The elephant cow Ceyla-Himali and the calf are fine: the young calf is the seventh Asian elephant born at the Zurich zoo.
2005-05-02 - CHICAGO, United States.
After two African elephants died within months of each other, officials at Lincoln Park Zoo decided to move Wankie, their sole remaining elephant, to Utah so she could live in a habitat with others of her species. But Wankie's health deteriorated while she was en route to Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City and officials there were forced to euthanized her before dawn on Sunday, officials said.
2005-05-02 - Hohenwald, Tennessee, United States. Carol Buckley, The Elephant Sanctuary
Responsibilities: The qualified applicant will be charged with maintaining female African and Asian elephants in two separate multi-hundred acre habitats.Responsibilities include but are not limited to cleaning, food preparation, record keeping, behavior conditioning, construction and facility maintenance. The chosen candidate will be trained (in-house) to manage the elephants using the non-dominance technique of passive control.
2005-05-02 - Uppsala, Sweden. SS Lewerin, SL Olsson, K Eld, B Roken, S Ghebremichael, T Koivula, G Kallenius, and G Bolske. National Veterinary Institute, Uppsala
Between 2001 and 2003, there was an outbreak of tuberculosis in a Swedish zoo which involved elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses and buffaloes. Cultures of trunk lavages were used to detect infected elephants, tuberculin testing was used in the giraffes and buffaloes, and tracheal lavage and tuberculin testing were used in the rhinoceroses. Five elephants and one giraffe were found to have been infected by four different strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
2005-04-30 - BANGALORE, India. Govind D. Belgaumkar
"Elephantine thanks to the PM"; "Veda saved from a cruel fate"; "Thank you, press." The banners said it all. Bangaloreans — schoolchildren and parents, as well as other animal-lovers — on Friday celebrated the decision of the Central Government to leave the six-year-old elephant, Veda, with its `family' in the Bannerghatta National Park here. The Centre had decided to gift Veda to Armenia to join the only male elephant in a zoo in that country. Animal-lovers here opposed it pointing at the c...
2005-04-30 - Harare, Zimbabwe. Basildon Peta
Fresh from his disputed victory in Zimbabwe’s parliamentary elections, President Robert Mugabe has turned his sights on the country’s wildlife reserves in a bid to feed thousands of malnourished villagers. Zimbabwe’s national parks have been ordered to work with rural district councils to begin the wholesale slaughter of big game. National park rangers said they had already shot 10 elephants in the past week. The meat was barbecued at festivities to mark 25 years of independence. Four of t...
2005-04-29 - Jacksonville, United States.
The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens is currently seeking an experienced elephant keeper. Preferred qualifications include a degree in biology or related field, a minimum of 2 years experience in an AZA accredited zoo with previous experience working protected contact. Must be familiar with the AZA Standards for Elephant Management and Care.
2005-04-28 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Following a request from the Sri Lankan government, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has decided to help protect the country's elephants. A proposal was submitted by the Sri Lankan government to the ADB asking for Rs. 51 million for this purpose. However, the funds have not been finalized yet.
2005-04-28 - Orissa, India. Bibhuti Mishra
Orissa will soon use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to protect the state's elephants that are facing serious threat from poachers and human encroachments. By fitting GPS collars on elephants, experts will be able to track their movements, identify encroachments and monitor the movement of poachers too, officials of the Wildlife department said. The initiative is being funded by the Centre and will cover the Mayurbhanj elephant reserve, which includes the Similipal Tiger Reserve. Similipal i...
2005-04-28 - London, United Kingdom.
Anne is a 52-year-old Asian elephant - the oldest elephant in the UK and only elephant remaining in a UK circus. Although Anne no longer performs in the ring at Bobby Roberts' Super Circus, she's used as a photographic prop during the interval at £4 a photograph. Had Anne remained in Sri Lanka half a century ago, she would, in all probability, be a mother with calves of her own and be living in a large family group.
2005-04-27 - St. Louis, United States. AZA
Elephant Handler/Trainer Position Available. Grant™s Farm is a 281 acre wildlife preserve and historical site located just south of the city of St. Louis, Missouri. The Farm is the home of hundreds of exotic animals from around the world. Application Deadline: May 8, 2005.
2005-04-27 - Montgomery, United States. AZA
The Montgomery Zoo recently added a NEW Africian Elephant Exhibit and is in need of a Zoo Keeper II - Elephants. Here is your chance to get in on the Ground Floor and work in a Brand New, Technologically Advance African Elephant Exhibit. Minimum Qualifications: High school diploma or G.E.D. and two years professional animal care experience within the last 5 years or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
2005-04-26 - SURAT THANI, Thailand.
National park officials in Thailand's southern province of Surat Thani today voiced fears that wild elephants might be shot by irate local farmers if they continued to encroach on agricultural land. Mr. Nattaphol Rattanaphan, head of the Tai Rom Yen National Park, expressed his concerns during a meeting of national park officials, noting that a herd of six elephants had recently encroached on land in tambon Klon Sa in a desperate search for food and water.
2005-04-25 - Johannesburg, South Africa.
Park authorities in South Africa have delayed making a decision on ways to curb the exploding elephant population in the Kruger National Park as experts remain divided on the issue, according to a news report on Sunday. Scientists and managers at South African National Parks have asked for a delay in a report, due to be released at the end of this month, recommending methods to reduce the number of elephant in the park, the Sunday Independent said.
2005-04-25 - Assam, India.
Fifty elephants in colourful velvet robes and tinkle anklets marched into a remote village here at the launch of a week-long festival, aimed at ending conflict between the animals and locals. Lumbering their way into an open field, the elephants raised their trunks and their khaki-clad mahouts waved silk flags to salute hundreds of visitors at the festival.
2005-04-25 - ORLANDO, Florida, United States. Christina Ficara
Disney suffers a “profound loss” after an expectant mother at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom loses her baby at birth. The African elephant died in its mother’s womb Sunday afternoon. The mother elephant, Ibala, 26, went into labor early Saturday night after a 22-month gestation period. During the following hours, her contractions lessened, and a veterinarian had to induce labor. By late Sunday, veterinarians determined through an ultrasound that the baby elephant had died.
2005-04-25 - Siliguri, India.
The West Bengal Police have arrested one person and recovered six pieces of ivory worth more than 8,000 dollars from him. Bhushan Roy was arrested when police sent a decoy team to strike a deal on the outskirts of Siliguri town in Darjeeling district. Police said ivory pieces weighed 7.9 kilograms and would fetch more than 8,000 dollars in the international market.
2005-04-24 - Harare, Zimbabwe. Mike Cadman, Sunday Independent (SA)
A least nine elephants were shot, four by Zimbabwean National Parks scouts, and used as meat for celebrations to mark the 25th year of Zimbabwe's independence. A least nine elephants were shot, four by Zimbabwean National Parks scouts, and used as meat for celebrations to mark the 25th year of Zimbabwe's independence, according to conservationists. Four elephants, part of a herd which is accustomed to people and easy to approach, were shot in full view of tourists close to the Bumi Hills Hotel, ...
2005-04-22 - HARARE, Zimbabwe. JANE FIELDS
FACED with worsening food shortages, president Robert Mugabe’s officials have resorted to killing elephants to pacify hungry Zimbabweans, it was claimed yesterday. Game rangers near the western resort town of Kariba were told to kill at least four elephants ahead of celebrations to mark Zimbabwe’s 25th anniversary of independence this week, said Johnny Rodrigues, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF).
2005-04-21 - Paignton, United Kingdom. Sam Marsden, PA
Two female elephants have been split up at night after a tussle left one of them injured, zoo staff said today. Keepers at Paignton Zoo in Devon acted after discovering that Gay, an Asian elephant, had wounds apparently caused by the tusks of Duchess, an African. The pair, who both weigh four tonnes and are aged about 35, have lived together happily since arriving at the zoo from Longleat Safari Park in 1977.
2005-04-20 - SEOUL, South Korea.
Six elephants escaped from an amusement park Wednesday and injured a woman as they rampaged through the South Korean capital, officials said. All of the animals were eventually captured and returned to the park. One elephant charged into an alley near an elementary school and hit a 52-year-old woman, Roh In-sun, with its trunk, Yonhap news agency said. She was being treated at a hospital.
2005-04-20 - Kampala, Uganda.
An Indian tourist at a wildlife reserve in northern Uganda was killed by an elephant when he and several compatriots tried to get a close look at the pachyderm and her calf, officials said on Tuesday. The slain safari-goer was one of six Indian visitors in the Murchison Falls National Park on Sunday to have misjudged the distance between themselves and a group of elephants and were charged, the officials said.
2005-04-19 - Washington, United States. ROB CRILLY
A CONGOLESE botanist who stayed at his post to protect a nature reserve at the height of his country’s bitter civil war has won one of the world’s top environmental awards. Corneille Ewango negotiated with gunmen to stop them shooting elephants and gorillas for meat, and even found time to discover new species of trees. Yesterday, he was named one of the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, worth £65,000. "It’s my contribution to advancing science," he said. "Even if I die, I would...
2005-04-19 - Houston, United States. SALATHEIA BRYANT
Shanti, the Houston Zoo's reluctant mother, is pregnant again. The Asian elephant who gave birth to baby Bella last August is expected to have her second calf in late 2006. The pregnancy may have occurred outside the breeding protocol to which members of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, or AZA, must adhere. The zoo first should have sought a recommendation for this second birth, according to the chairman of the advisory committee overseeing the group's elephant species survival plan.
2005-04-18 - KAMPALA, Uganda. GEOFFREY MULEME
The once-threatened elephant population in Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park increased by more than 1,000 during the past three years, partly because of animals fleeing poachers and civil war in neighboring Congo, a government wildlife official said Monday. Thousands of elephants in the park were slaughtered in the 1970s by dictator Idi Amin's soldiers and in the 1980s by rebel armies. The area is now protected, and the elephant population is booming because animals are leaving adjacent Vir...
2005-04-18 - Wyoming, United States. Bjorn Carey
One million years ago, elephants and their cousins roamed the five major continents of the earth. Then humans came along. Today elephants can be found only in portions of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.There is a long-running debate over what drove elephants to extinction in some parts of the world and completely wiped other two other proboscideans, mammoths and mastodons. The two most argued hypotheses for their decline are climatic changes and over-hunting by humans. A recent archaeological...
2005-04-18 - Cabinda, Angola.
Undetermined number of elephants are destroying tillage of the peasants in the districts of Buco Zau and Belize in far northern Cabinda province, it was denounced today by the co-ordinator of a bio-diversity project, Alfredo Buza. Mr Buza said that the gravity of the situation jeopardises the communities' food sustenance. He added that there has arrived last week in the region a British expert in handling of elephants, to study the situation.
2005-04-18 - El Paso, United States. AZA
This individual supervises and participates in the care and management of the segment of the Zoo's animal collection consisting of elephants, non-domestic hoof stock, primates, marine mammals and other exotic animals and the associated maintenance of exhibits, animal facilities grounds and service areas.
2005-04-18 - Houston, United States.
The Houston Zoo is currently seeking an individual for a keeper position working with elephants. This individual will carry out all aspects of the daily care of assigned animals including cleaning, feeding, grooming, and observing animals. Responsibilities include, but not limited to, observing and evaluating animal conditions, providing daily husbandry, enrichment, training, exhibit maintenance, and record keeping.
2005-04-17 - Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand.
Local officials in Prachuab Khiri Khan today made a desperate appeal to the government, urging them to permit the construction of low-voltage electric fences to prevent herds of elephants from encroaching on local pineapple fields. In a continuation of the long-running battle between man and beast in Kuiburi district, Mr. Chaliew Jermwongrattanachai, a member of the Hat Kham tambon administrative organization, told reporters that around 130 elephants living in the Kuiburi National Park we...
2005-04-16 - RANGOON, Myanmar.
As military-ruled Burma sinks deeper into economic stagnation, only the country's famed elephants may be assured of jobs. Eighty percent of Burma's 4,000 tame elephants work in the timber industry, moving 700,000 tons of teak and other precious wood for export, which annually brings in more than $300 million. As long as the country depends on the timber industry to get foreign currency, elephants will be crucial, U Aung Myint, an official of a government-owned timber company, recently told the M...
2005-04-15 - Kigali, Rwanda.
Kigali - The aggressive behaviour of a rogue elephant in a Rwandan wildlife preserve has prompted an unusual warning from the United States embassy in Kigali, normally more concerned with threats posed by humans. The embassy said visitors to Lake Ihema in northern Rwanda's Akagera Game Park should take extra security precautions because of the rogue beast that was becoming increasingly violent.
2005-04-15 - Kollam, India. Ignatius Pereira
The 64-year-old tusker was adjudged the most handsome among domesticated elephants in the State last year. If elephants are animals with good memory, the celebrated tusker Gajaratnam Guruvayur Padmanabhan will never forget his maiden visit to Kollam on Wednesday. The warm receptions accorded to the mammoth dignitary right through the 25 km journey from Karunagapally to the Asramam Sri Krishna Swamy Temple in Kollam were rousing enough much to the envy of at least some human celebrities. ...
2005-04-15 - POLK CITY, United States. STEVEN N. LEVINE
An Indian elephant that seriously injured its trainer late on Wednesday will most likely rejoin the herd in a few weeks, Ringling Bros. vice president said on Thursday. Bruce Read, Ringling Bros. vice president of animal stewardship, said Tova, a 36-year-old female pachyderm weighing 6-7 tons, exhibited normal elephant hierarchy behavior about 9 p.m. when it trampled David R. Mannes, 52, of Clermont.
2005-04-15 - HOUSTON, United States.
Officials with the Houston Zoo announced they were forced to put the zoo's baby Asian elephant, Bella, to sleep Friday morning, Local 2 reported. Bella was recovering from surgery to repair a fractured right femur. Zoo officials said the 552-pound elephant stumbled on the soft ground, fell and fractured her leg Tuesday. The elephant, whose mother rejected her after birth, underwent 2½ hours of surgery in which doctors used four pins and a rod to repair the broken leg.
2005-04-15 - POLK CITY, United States. Amber Smith
An elephant handler who was kicked by an elephant Wednesday is expected to make a full recovery. David R. Mannes, 52, of Clermont, was airlifted to Lakeland Regional Medical Center at 9 p.m. Wednesday after being kicked by an elephant at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Elephant Conservation Center near Old Grade Road in Polk City.
2005-04-15 - ST. LOUIS, United States.
Around the St. Louis Zoo living area of Raja the male elephant, there's big news these days - he's apparently going to have a daughter. Blood tests indicate that Raja's first offspring will be a female, due around the first week of November. Martha Fischer, curator of the zoo's mammals-ungulates, said the baby's gender won't be known for sure until its birth.
2005-04-14 - POLK CITY, United States. Dana Willhoit, The Ledger
Paramedics airlifted a man trampled by an elephant shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. David R. Mannes, 52, was taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center after the incident, which happened on Old Grade Road, near Polk City. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Elephant Conservation Center is located nearby.
2005-04-14 - Khao Yai, Thailand.
19 teenage bulls are the focus of this article. The researchers' observations show that they are currently forging out their personal home ranges _ each bull will need an area of about 120 square kilometres and herein lies the first issue. Is Khao Yai big enough for all of these boys? If each of the 23 identified bulls requires an area of 120 square kilometres, they will need a total area of 2,760 square kilometres. Khao Yai is only 2,168 square kilometres. And don't forget the bu...
2005-04-14 - Indianapolis, United States. AZA
The Indianapolis Zoo is seeking a professional to join the staff of their progressive and internationally respected elephant program. The Indianapolis Zoo is known for its’ pioneering research in training, reproduction, and artificial insemination. We currently have 1.4 African elephants. The program will be expanding with the upcoming births of two calves. Experience with elephants is essential. Experience with elephant births and calves preferred.
2005-04-12 - Gauhati, India.
An elephant has gone berserk in a busy shopping area of a north-eastern Indian city, killing two people and injuring two others, a forest ranger said. People ran for their lives when its keeper lost control of the animal in Gauhati, the capital of Assam state, forest guard Narayan Mahanta said.
2005-04-12 - Nashville, United States. Judy Sarles, Nashville Business Journal
More than 6,600 people turned out April 9 to the official opening of the Nashville Zoo's Cal Turner Family Foundation African Elephant Savannah exhibit. The zoo was expecting 5,000 to 8,000 people and the turnout was 6,651. On average, Saturday attendance at the zoo ranges between 4,000 to 5,000. At a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the $3.5 million, three-acre elephant habitat, the Turner family was presented with a framed poster of art created by the exhibit's African elephants, Kiba, Sukari and H...
2005-04-12 - Washington, United States. Steve Connor, Science
Elephants have been hunted to extinction on several continents and their global demise over the millennia is the direct result of human migration rather than climate change, scientists have found.
2005-04-11 - Kaziranga, India. NISHIT DHOLABHAI
This is a piece of news that will warm the cockles of every conservationist’s heart. An elephant census at the Kaziranga National Park has revealed an increase in the population of the species by nearly 200, no mean feat given the intensity of the man-animal conflict in Assam. The encouraging report comes close on the heels of a grand centenary bash at the park.
2005-04-11 - Ranchi, India.
Jharkhand has hired two elephants trained in helping control wild tuskers that have killed 250 people in the state in over four years. A forest department official said the elephants, called 'kunkis', have been acquired from Assam for 25 years with their mahouts at Rs.350,000. The official said that two kunkis hired earlier for a year had been found to be very handy in trapping wild elephants, which stray into the villages, damage crops and houses and even kill people.
2005-04-09 - LOS ANGELES, United States. Catherine Saillant and Gregory W. Griggs
Construction crews have uncovered the skeleton of a fossilized mammoth believed to be older than the ancient beasts found at the La Brea Tar Pits. Larry Agenbroad, one of the nation's foremost mammoth experts, called the find "spectacular," especially if, as he suspects, it turns out to be of the rare meridionalis species.
2005-04-08 - SAN ANDREAS, California, United States. HUGH McDIARMID JR.
The Detroit Zoo elephants, Wanda and Winky, arrived safety at the Ark 2000 elephant sanctuary today at about 8 a.m. Eastern time. It took about 15 minutes for workers to unload Wanda starting at about 8:30 a.m., and she has been making herself comfortable at the sanctuary in San Andreas, about 70 west of Sacramento. Scott Carter, director of conservation and animal welfare for the Detroit Zoo, said he called zoo director Ron Kagan this morning and told him that “Wanda is curious, active and do...
2005-04-07 - Johannesburg, South Africa.
A campaign to oppose the removal of elephants from the wild for commercial purposes was launched this week by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and its partner organisation the Ethical Conservation Network. "Born to be Wild" was launched after IFAW and the ECN were concerned that, with growing numbers of elephants on private reserves, the temptation to sell off perceived excess stock of baby elephants to buyers in the tourism industry is great.
2005-04-07 - Memphis, United States. Memphis Zoo, Memphis, TN
We have an opening for a Keeper in our Pachyderm/Hooved Stock area. This position requires a minimum of two years of experience in exotic animal care, including one to two years of experience in a protected contact environment with elephants, and a college degree in zoology, biology or a related field (or the equivalent combination of education and experience).
2005-04-06 - Nebraska, United States. PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI
The aging and arthritic Detroit Zoo elephants, Winky and Wanda, spent much of today rolling through Nebraska, munching on watermelon and sipping all the Gatorade they wanted in their specially-designed trailer that’s taking them to a California sanctuary. Once out of Nebraska, their trip will take them though Wyoming and Nevada. They’re expected to arrive at the sanctuary sometime Thursday.
2005-04-05 - Singhbhum, India. Anupam Rana
For the first time, a scientific approach was adopted by the state forest and environment department when it conducted a census in the Singhbhum elephant reserve last month. Guidelines issued by the Government of India prompted the officials to carry out the survey. Chief wildlife warden U.R. Biswas, who was in Chaibasa for a foresters’ training programme, said the census was conducted at the lowest forest segment (sub-beat level) in each territorial forest division of the elephant reserve.
2005-04-05 - ROYAL OAK, Michigan, United States. UPI
The Detroit Zoo's aging elephants left Tuesday morning for the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary near Sacramento, Calif. The 2,300-mile trek in a retrofitted moving van will take 52 hours, the Detroit Free Press reported on its Web site. Wanda, 46, and Winky, 51, have been on a new, more aggressive regimen of anti-inflammatory drugs for two weeks. Wanda, whose arthritis is more severe than Winky's, will be able to take weight off her hindquarters by sitting on custom-made barriers.
2005-04-04 - Jaipur, India. Anindita Ramaswamy, Sapa-dpa
If you own an elephant and don't know how to keep it happy, you could learn a few lessons from Parbati Barua, Asia's only female "mahout" (elephant handler). Did you know that elephants have a "sour tooth", with a particular liking for tamarind? Or that they enjoy a daily, hour-long massage, preferably in a circular motion with a pumice stone?
2005-04-03 - Sydney, Australia. Angela Cuming
Almost everything is ready for the opening of Taronga Zoo's Asian Elephant Rainforest enclosure - except for the elephants themselves. The $40 million enclosure is due to open midyear but the five elephants have not arrived on Australian soil because the Federal Government has not been granted an import licence.
2005-04-02 - NORFOLK, United States.
The Norfolk Zoo has a new addition, a 35-year-old African elephant named Cita. The elephant arrived this week to join Monica and Lisa, two other female elephants who have lived at the zoo for more than 30 years. The Indianapolis Zoo donated Cita to Norfolk to make room for the calves that two pregnant elephants are expected to bear later this year.
2005-04-01 - Jakarta, Indonesia.
Wild elephants trampled three farmers to death in a national park on Indonesia's Sumatra island, as the villagers scavenged for lumber left behind by illegal loggers, a government official said on Friday.
2005-03-29 - Sparks, United States.
Bertha was really special. We built her the Elephant Palace with a swimming pool. Jenda Smaha was a trainer from Czechoslovakia. One day he came in, and he said, “I quit.” Now what would you do with two elephants? I got on the phone and started calling all the circuses to find a trainer. We found T.J. Madison in Vermont. He was with Barnum and Bailey or some such. He was a very handsome man, six-three, a very, very nice person with a good personality.
2005-03-28 - Bangkok, Thailand. Connie Levett
Thailand's Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, has been accused of elephant diplomacy in the war of words over nine elephants destined for export to Australian zoos. "Our Prime Minister promised the Australian government to give nine elephants; he has promised many countries," said Soraida Salwala, founder of Friends of the Asian Elephant.
2005-03-28 - WALNUT CREEK, United States. Chris Metinko, Knight Ridder Newspapers
In some people's minds, elephants are the ultimate symbol of strength and power. But on this particular Thursday morning, 36-year-old African elephant M'Dunda was more than content to stand in a restraint chute and eat carrots and potatoes. Oakland Zoo elephant manager Jeff Kinzley was scrubbing her feet. "The leading cause of death among elephants in captivity is foot problems," Kinzley said. "You have to look carefully."
2005-03-27 - HARARE, Zimbabwe. Xinhuanet
Residents in Hwange, some 800 km west of Zimbabwean capital Harare, are having sleepless nights following the invasion of the town by stray elephants that are destroying property and fruit trees, according to Sunday News. The elephants are running away from the nearby national park in search of drinking water. It is believed that green trees are now scarce in the parks and the jumbos were being attracted to the residential areas by green mango trees.
2005-03-27 - Limpopo, South Africa. Leon Marshall
The great elephant herds of the Kruger National Park, under threat of culling, are migrating in growing numbers across the border into Mozambique's adjacent Limpopo Park. Flying by helicopter over Limpopo Park last Friday, we could see several herds and single bulls moving through the bush that had formerly been denuded of game by Mozambique's protracted war and by serving as a coutada, or hunting ground, under earlier Portuguese colonial rule.
2005-03-27 - Jaipur, India.
Dozens of elephants in colourful velvet robes, jewellery and anklets marched with pride and aplomb as hundreds of awe-struck foreigners and locals cheered the majestic animals in Jaipur. The city is holding a month-long festival to promote tourism.
2005-03-26 - SAN FRANCISCO, United States. Patricia Yollin
In the final moments, she had a chain to play with and sugar cane to eat. And then Tinkerbelle was put to sleep -- a sad and quiet end to the life of an Asian elephant who had charmed San Francisco Zoo visitors for more than three decades before turning into one of the most political animals in the country. The 39-year-old pachyderm was euthanized early Thursday afternoon after collapsing at the Sierra foothills sanctuary she moved to in November. ...
2005-03-25 - Sydney, Australia.
More than $50 million has been spent to import an endangered species but the plan is unravelling, writes Andrew Darby. In the confines of a quarantine station in Thailand, nine Asian elephants are waiting to start new lives in Taronga, Melbourne and Auckland zoos. Their stay was supposed to last only three months but they have been in quarantine for nearly six months.
2005-03-24 - Sukhothai, Thailand. JARUNEE TAEMSAMRAN
Sukhothai province, where two historical ruins that have been declared World Heritage sites by Unesco are located, is inviting visitors who want to witness and participate in a centuries-old tradition scheduled to take place next month. From April 7-12, the usually quiet Si Satchanalai historical park in Tambon Had Siao, Si Satchanalai district will be transformed into a festive venue where ancient religious and cultural ceremonies of the local Thai Phuan people will be staged.
2005-03-24 - New York, United States. Johns Hopkins University school of medicine
Afrotheria - the theory, based on molecular evidence, that a superorder of mammals from aardvarks to elephants had its origins in Africa - could be in trouble before most people have learned to spell it. One of the groups embraced within the Afrotheria concept is macroscelideans, or elephant shrews. There are 15 of these small mammals and they all live in Africa. But, Shawn Zack of Johns Hopkins University school of medicine and colleagues report in Nature today, they may not have evolved in Afr...
2005-03-23 - Hwange, Zimbabwe. Christopher Munnion
Horrified tourists have fled from Hwange national park, Zimbabwe's largest game reserve, after witnessing the "wholesale slaughter" of animals, part of what conservation groups fear is an officially sanctioned poaching ring. A collection of elephant tusks ‘Indications are that the country's game is being plundered’ Operation Nyama, or "Operation Meat", is ostensibly a campaign to feed starving villagers in northern Matabeleland. But indep...
2005-03-23 - Amboseli, Kenya. BRYN NELSON
For a bored adolescent elephant, the call of the wild can sound much like a truck. In a new study, researchers describe surprising evidence for vocal learning and imitation by an orphaned 10-year-old African savanna elephant named Malaika, who mimicked the sound of trucks rumbling within a few miles of her hillside enclosure in Tsavo, Kenya. Joyce Poole, research director for the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, said she didn't believe Mlaika -- who has since died -- was trying to call out to...
2005-03-22 - The Crags, South Africa.
Elephants have been introduced to the Knysna area right next door to two major eco-tourism attractions. Elephants of Eden is located at The Crags - and its closest neighbours are Monkeyland and Birds of Eden. While there have been reports of sightings of wild elephants in deep forest areas near Knysna, these are rare. Efforts to reintroduce elephants in an area that once accommodated Africa's southernmost herd have only enjoyed modest success in the past. Elephants ...
2005-03-21 - Oakland, United States. Chris Metinko
In some people's minds, elephants are the ultimate symbol of strength and power. But on this particular Thursday morning, 36-year-old African elephant M'Dunda was more than content to stand in a restraint chute and eat carrots and potatoes. Oakland Zoo elephant manager Jeff Kinzley was scrubbing her feet. The change to protected contact was spurred on after an elephant killed his trainer in 1991. Ten years later, Smokey, the zoo's bull elephant, died unexpectedly.
2005-03-20 - Lusaka, Zambia. Brighton Phiri
ELEPHANTS have forced some people out of their villages in chief Nyalugwe's area. In an interview, chief Nyalugwe of the Nsenga people in Nyimba district confirmed the elephants' invasion, which had left many people without food in his chiefdom. "The majority of our people have lost their food because the elephants have destroyed both the maize fields and storages in the villages," chief Nyalugwe said. He said one of the villagers last week sustained a broken leg as he ran for his...
2005-03-17 - KHARTOUM, Sudan. MOHAMED OSMAN
International groups fighting the poaching of ivory accuse Sudanese officials of doing too little to stop a trade that is rapidly reducing the numbers of elephants in Africa. But in sprawling Sudanese markets where ivory curios are sold, merchants complain the wildlife authorities are too diligent, if anything. They accuse officials of harassment by carrying out checks to see if they are selling legal, antique ivory. They are wary of speaking to a reporter.
2005-03-17 - Jim Corbett National Park, India. India News
The world famous, Jim Corbett National Park, suffered a major loss when the park lost one of its Elephants after it was electrocuted. The elephant was killed due to electrocution on the outskirts of the national park. The elephants from the park venture out to the nearby fields, adjoining the national park, and at times destroy the crops of the villagers. This led to certain villagers putting up electrified fences to prevent the elephants from venturing into and des...
2005-03-16 - Beijing, China. People's Daily Online
A delegation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) recently completed a visit to China, during which they investigated the protection of Asian Elephants and trade of ivory in China. The delegation came to the conclusion that China had made great efforts at protecting Asian Elephant population and habitats, standardizing the management of ivory processing and trade, severely cracking down on illegal smuggling and trade of ivory etc. and had...
2005-03-16 - CAMP KOMBO, Cameroon. Andrew Gray
Desire Dontego is no longer an elephant poacher but he can still boast like one. "I was known as the killing machine," he declared after darkness fell in the Cameroon rainforest, the constant chirping of insects the only sound apart from his voice. Dontego, a 39-year-old father of three, now works on a project to protect endangered species rather than kill them. In densely wooded southeastern Cameroon, the authorities and global conservation organization WWF are try...
2005-03-16 - Toledo, United States.
Another controversy regarding animal care has surfaced at the Toledo Zoo, this time involving the African elephant, Renee. Zoo offcials say that while Renee was being treated for Colic this week, a keeper mistakenly injected her with mineral oil instead of pain reliever. The Zoo's press release indicates that the mistake was discovered immediately and that the injection site was lanced and flushed and that the 26 year old elephant is doing well. Renee is the mother of Louis who was born two y...
2005-03-15 - Nairobi, Kenya. Wangui Kanina
SUDAN'S army has illegally slaughtered thousands of elephants and exported the ivory to China, where it is made into chopsticks, a conservationist said today. The army was responsible for the slaughter of elephants in southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic before transporting the ivory to dealers in Khartoum and Cairo, said Esmond Martin, who is based in Kenya. Mr Martin said a 20-year civil war in southern Sudan had made it difficult to d...
2005-03-15 - Nairobi, Kenya. Tony Dennis
A RELIABLE SOURCE informs the INQ that conservationists in Kenya have been fitting elephants with mini mobile phones. The phone gives away the elephant's location via a text (SMS) message. The purpose of the exercise is to stop the elephants trampling valuable crops. When the elephants start to move towards the planted fields, the farmers are alerted and can head the herd off before any damage is done.
2005-03-15 - Kampala, Uganda. Chris Ahimbisibwe
Four elephants from Queen Elizabeth National Park invaded Rubengye village in Burere sub-county, Bushenyi district and left crop gardens destroyed. The area councillor, Ephraim Biraro, revealed this on Friday during a district council meeting.
2005-03-11 - BROWNSVILLE, United States.
A 41-year-old elephant believed to be the oldest of its kind in North America died Thursday. Macho, a male African elephant, died at the Gladys Porter Zoo where he had lived since the zoo opened in 1971. The cause of death had not been determined, but zoo officials said possibilities include stroke, blood clot, neurological deficit or infectious disease.
2005-03-10 - Chicago, United States. ANDREW HERRMANN
In a Democratic town like Chicago, the donkeys rule at City Hall. But elephants made an appearance Wednesday as an alderman called for the closing of Lincoln Park Zoo's pachyderm exhibit and for its last occupant to be shipped to a sanctuary. Aldermen have no direct jurisdiction over the zoo. But Alderman George A. Cardenas (12th) said he introduced his resolution in the hope that zoo officials will testify about conditions at the North Side facility. The resolution...
2005-03-10 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenya's elephant population has jumped by about 10% in the past three years due to a strict clampdown on poaching in the east African nation, the country's wildlife authority said on Thursday. "In 2002, we estimated there were 27 000 elephants, now we estimate that the elephants have increased to about 30 000," Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) spokesperson Edward Indakwa said. "Due to improved monitoring and surveillance, we have managed to cut down on poaching of eleph...
2005-03-09 - Gaborone, Botswana.
Botswana's president is seeking support from neighbouring Zambia for a proposal that would allow it to cull elephants and sell their ivory, officials said on Tuesday. President Festus Mogae is expected to ask visiting Zambian President Levi Mwanawasa for support to downgrade the status of elephants under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, or Cites, a foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity. The official said Botswana ha...
2005-03-07 - BEIJING, China. Xinhuanet
China has taken measures to protect Asian, or Indian, Elephants and their wild habitats in thepast years, which helped stabilize the number of the species in the country. China now has 150 to 250 wild Asian Elephants living in Yunnan Province, the southwest of the country, according to the State Administration of Forestry.
2005-03-07 - Bhopal, India. India News
Forest personnel and mahouts will try and understand the sexual behaviour of elephants in an exercise that officials hope will help them tame the animals. K.C. Pannikar, an expert with the Elephant Institute in Kerala's Thrissur district, will conduct the training March 19 to 24. Around 100 mahouts and officials from the Satpura, Bandhavgarh and Kanha national parks of Madhya Pradesh will take part. "The workshop will teach the mahouts about elephant physiology and ...
2005-03-04 - HARTFORD, Connecticut, United States.
They may appear to be passive pachyderms, but performing elephants can be deadly, say some lawmakers who want to ban them from traveling shows and circuses in Connecticut. Elephants are trained through pain, force and fear, they say. Such experiences, combined with the effects of captivity, drive some to go on rampages and trample human beings, sometimes to death, activists say. "When they're not in their little pens, they're chained up," said Tom Rider, a former ...
2005-03-04 - KATIMA MULILO, Namibia. Peter Apps
Botswana's burgeoning elephant population is increasingly thundering across the border into neighboring Namibia and causing havoc, an environmental development group says. A crack down on poaching to boost tourism and years without culling and disease has allowed Botswana's elephant population to swell to over 100,000. But the group, a Namibian organization backed by the World Wildlife Fund, says there are now too many.
2005-03-03 - Tucson, United States.
Do Tucsonans want to keep elephants as an attraction at the Reid Park Zoo? Are they willing to pay part of the $8.5 million to do it? Those questions are very much up in the air, and reactions on the issue have been mixed. Zoo officials told the City Council Tuesday a new $8.5 million enclosure needs to be built by 2009 that would allow the zoo's 25-year-old African elephant, Shaba, to be bred. If the new enclosure isn't built, the zoo would likely lose Shaba to another zoo with facilities to br...
2005-03-03 - Paris, France. Régis Debruyne
Recent molecular phylogenies of the African elephants suggest that there is an evolutionary structure within Loxodonta africana. Some nuclear results (Roca et al., 2001) support the separation of the forest African elephant subspecies L. a. cyclotis as a species distinct from the savannah elephant L. a. africana, on the basis of the recognition of both forming highly divergent (reciprocally monophyletic) clades.
2005-03-02 - SEATTLE, United States.
A ticklish business, artificially inseminating an elephant. With the help of high-tech ultrasound and computer gear, special protective clothing, wheelbarrows and not a little cooperation from Chai, a 26-year-old Asian elephant, Woodland Park Zoo officials hope the complicated process led by two German scientists will result in the pachyderm giving again birth, as she did four years ago. Chai got pregnant by natural means last time around, but it wasn't all candy and flowers. She ...
2005-03-02 - TUCSON, United States.
Reid Park Zoo could lose its two elephants if the City of Tucson doesn't come up with the money for a new eight and a-half (m) million-dollar enclosure. Councilman Steve Leal (lay-AHL') is balking at the price, saying the city has limited resources for parks and recreation facilities. No formal request for funds has been made, however. The zoo says it'll have to ship one of its African elephants, Shaba, to another zoo for breeding if the elephant encl...
2005-03-02 - Seattle, United States. TOM PAULSON
It is no small feat to artificially impregnate an elephant. The basics of artificial insemination may be routine, but a glance into the elephant house at the Woodland Park Zoo yesterday evening should have been enough to convince anyone that this super-sized branch of animal husbandry poses some uniquely huge problems. The object of this attention is Chai, the zoo's 26-year-old Asian elephant. She is already a mother, having given birth to Hansa, now 4, by natural means. But this required the st...
2005-03-01 - Sydney, Australia. AAP
ANIMAL welfare groups want zoos in Australia and New Zealand to reveal their plans for the importation of nine elephants from Thailand. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), RSPCA Australia and the Humane Society International (HSI) say a consortium of zoos - led by Melbourne Zoo, Sydney's Taronga Zoo and Auckland Zoo - was refusing to reveal information it gave the Australian Government about its permit application. Despite repeated requests and an application made under the Freedom...
2005-02-28 - KOTA BARU, Malaysia. Sharifah Mahsinah Syed Abdullah
THE Jeli district recorded the highest number of complaints on damages made by elephants with 185 cases over the past three years. Kelantan Wildlife Department director Pazil Abdul Patah said in the same period, villagers from the other districts including Gua Musang, Kuala Krai and Tanah Merah filed 325 reports. He said the department managed to capture four elephants in Gua Musang from 2002 to 2004 while the latest was captured in Kampung Legeh, Jeli early this mo...
2005-02-28 - SINGAPORE, Singapore.
The Singapore zoo is using an old Asian remedy to treat sick animals: acupuncture. The latest patient is Tun, a 15-year-old Asian elephant whose right leg was crushed by a male elephant nine years ago. Zookeepers worried that Tun, who weighs 5,291 pounds, might not be able to settle her weight on her lame leg as she grew heavier. Veterinarian and acupuncturist Oh Soon Hock, who has poked and prodded giraffes, cheetahs and Komodo dragons in the name of medicine, started treating Tun a month and a...
2005-02-26 - DA PAM, India. AFP
Since his elephant Ramu died last week, a distraught Dharanidhar Bhumiz has been unable to sleep. “I didn’t have money to treat Ramu. I don’t feel like eating and while sleeping, Ramu continues to haunt me,” Bhumiz told AFP. Ramu was one of three bull elephants Bhumiz kept in the dusty village of Da Pam, 170 kilometers (105 miles) north of Guwahati, in northeastern India. He died after fracturing his hind leg and suffered a severe bout of a parasitic infection.
2005-02-25 - Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.
Zoos to significantly increase support for conservation programs; 40 zoos plan to expand or build new elephant exhibits in the next 5 years. Directors of 78 American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) accredited zoos that care for elephants endorsed an aggressive new vision that focuses on ensuring elephants are part of the world's future. The commitment highlights plans for increased support for programs that aid in the conservation of elephants in Africa and Asia.
2005-02-24 - ALAMO, United States. Eric Louie, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Elephants can't do homework, as much as Rancho Romero Elementary School second-grader Justin Anderson wishes they could. An elephant also won't spank classmate Laura Ennis' sister, as Laura would like to see. But the captive pachyderms provided important help in Thailand after December's Indian Ocean tsunami, as depicted in "A New Job for Lalana," a new fiction book created by Justin, Laura and their young classmates to raise money for victims of the disaster. "Elephants are special," sai...
2005-02-23 - New York, United States. Joan Hunt
Touching, thought-provoking, and beautifully told, the story of Noah, and that of mankind, is one that will linger in your heart and your mind for a very long time. In The Way That Elephants Do by David Kilpatrick is a deeply moving epic tale of one elephant's life. Although the story is told from the perspective of an inquisitive and nomadic pachyderm, you're drawn into his world with ease. Danger, love, history, the world, and the connection between humans and animals are deftly combined in th...
2005-02-23 - JOHANNESBURG, South Africa. Reuters
An elephant has killed a ranger in South Africa's Kruger National Park, a rare fatality for those who work among dangerous animals in the reserve, the park said on Wednesday. The park said in a statement that field ranger Wilson Ndlovu was killed on Tuesday morning while on a bicycle patrol. It gave no details of the attack but said the area was surrounded by two-metre-high grass and the rangers wouldn't have seen the elephants "until the last possible moment".
2005-02-23 - Guruvayur, India.
A pranky 18-year-old tusker breezed past four dozens of heavyweight competitors earlier this week to clinch Kerala's most popular annual pachyderm race in the temple town of Guruvayur. Krishna was cheered on by thousands of frenzied devotees and tourists, many of whom were simply mesmerised by the agility and frolic of the elephants who seemed to enjoy the race as much as them. The race marked the beginning of a 10-day festival in the temple dedicated to Lord Kris...
2005-02-23 - AMSTERDAM, Netherlands.
Dutch customs police have seized a shipment of African elephant body parts, including 22 feet, eight tusks, eight ears, three tails, a skull and an entire hide, officials said Wednesday. The cargo, originating in Zimbabwe and bound for Germany, was halted at Schiphol airport in October without proper licenses. The find was announced this week following an investigation and will be permanently confiscated, spokeswoman Anita Douven said. African elephants are an endan...
2005-02-22 - San Diego, United States.
Taking care of a single eight-ton elephant may seem like a big job, but keepers at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park must care for 14 elephants (six Asian and eight African). Jeff Andrews, animal care manager, who oversees many animals including elephants, let us jump right in and participate in one of the most time-consuming tasks of an elephant keeper, picking up poop. A single elephant can excrete nearly 100 pounds daily, giving their keepers plenty to do.
2005-02-22 - San Diego, United States. Lindsey
Taking care of a single eight-ton elephant may seem like a big job, but keepers at the San Diego Zoos Wild Animal Park must care for 14 elephants (six Asian and eight African). Jeff Andrews, animal care manager, who oversees many animals including elephants, let us jump right in and participate in one of the most time-consuming tasks of an elephant keeper, picking up poop. A single elephant can excrete nearly 100 pounds daily, giving their keepers plenty to do.
2005-02-21 - Vienna, Austria. Press-information, Vienna Zoo
Yesterday, on Sunday Feb. 20th, 2005 around 10.40 am the head keeper of the elephant house, 39 year old Gerd Kohl was attacked and deadly injured by the young elephant bull “Abu”. Gerd Kohl was considered one of the most experienced elephant keepers in Europe and therefore was also the one who took care of and trained the 4 year old Abu (born on April 25, 2001) in Schoenbrunn. The accident occurred during the daily morning shower of the elephants. Unforeseeably, the 1.6-ton-e...
2005-02-21 - Guruvayur, India.
Krishna, the 18-year-old tusker offered to Sri Guruvayurappan by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, won the elephant race marking the start of the 10-day annual festival of the Sri Krishna Temple here. Krishna raced past six other competitors covering a distance of over one km as a big crowd of devotees and fans cheered and applauded the pachyderms vying for honour along the eastern road of the temple town. Starting from Manjulal, the elephants ran to the easte...
2005-02-21 - Guwahati, India.
If you have always wondered about the traditional art of catching and taming wild elephants, your curiosity is about to be satisfied. An elephant village, modelled on the ones in Thailand and Singapore, is taking shape on the outskirts of Rani forest reserve, a stone’s throw from Guwahati, to house tamed elephants and host tourists. Besides showcasing the traditional way of catching and taming wild elephants, the village will have centres to train mahouts and dome...
2005-02-21 - Calgary, Canada. Judi McLeod
Kamala, one of the Calgary Zoo’s four elephants, really DOES paint. And according to Canada Free Press business manager Brian Thompson who visited the Calgary Zoo, Kamala’s art is more Van Gogh than kindergarten. In the wild, elephants have been observed picking up sticks or rocks to draw in the sand or soil, proving that doodling is not just a human pastime. Those in the know say that giving an opportunity to paint provides Kamala with an interesting activity that stim...
2005-02-20 - Vienna, Austria. AP
An elephant crushed a keeper to death Sunday at the Vienna Zoo, police said. Zookeeper Gerhard Kohl, 39, was killed after he had showered the elephant, Abu, as part of the morning routine, the Austria Press Agency said, citing veterinarian Thomas Voracek. The elephant, an almost 4-year-old bull, pinned Kohl to the wall and speared him with his tusks, APA reported.
2005-02-20 - Bangkok, Thailand. Sapa-AFP
It's rare enough when living artists fetch outrageous fortune for their work. When those modern-day Matisses are Thai elephants, however, they charge into the record books. Eight elephants in northern Thailand have painted their way into the Guinness Book of World Records after an art lover living in the United States shelled out a jumbo 1,5 million baht (about R240 000) for their canvas creation - the highest price ever paid for elephant art. The four-legged artist...
2005-02-18 - Chicago, United States.
A McHenry County circus trainer who federal officials accused of improperly caring for a herd of elephants is negotiating a plan to send his remaining 12 elephants to a Tennessee sanctuary. Talks began this week among Hawthorn Corp., its owner, John Cuneo, and the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn., about having the remaining elephants join others from the northeast Illinois farm at the sanctuary. The U.S. Department of Agriculture filed charges in April 2003 th...
2005-02-18 - Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. U.S. Newswire
The American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) and the International Elephant Foundation (IEF) have entered into a new partnership to help identify and fund critical conservation and research projects that will benefit Asian and African elephants. Populations of both the African and Asian elephants continue to decline in the wild. Human encroachment, habitat loss, and poaching pose major threats to wild elephants. In 1970, biologists estimated 1.5 million African elephants in the...
2005-02-18 - Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.
2005-02-18 - Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. Jane Ballentine
The American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) and the International Elephant Foundation (IEF) have entered into a new partnership to help identify and fund critical conservation and research projects that will benefit Asian and African elephants. Populations of both the African and Asian elephants continue to decline in the wild. Human encroachment, habitat loss, and poaching pose major threats to wild elephants.
2005-02-17 - LAKELAND, Florida, United States. JOAN TUPPONCE
Asha and Rudy are as playful as any 3-year-olds. But they aren't your typical toddlers -- the two are Asian elephants, both born at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation. The Center for Elephant Conservation, celebrating its 10th anniversary in December, was founded by Kenneth Feld, chairman and chief executive officer of Feld Entertainment and president of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The center, which is just outside Tampa, Fla., has...
2005-02-17 - Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Chris Brummitt, Associated Press
Rachmat has a nasty gash on his leg from walking over broken glass. Marni has a forehead laceration from bumping up against things. Their fellow workers are also nursing cuts and scrapes. Since the Asian elephants began helping clear debris in Indonesia’s Aceh province after the Dec. 26 tsunami, they have picked up minor on-the-job injuries. Officials and trainers say none of the wounds are serious, but conservationists and animal welfare activists say the endangered elephants shouldn’t be w...
2005-02-17 - Kolhapur, India.
The entry of three elephants into the forest in Chandgad tehsil of this district on Monday, has caused anxiety and terror in the minds of the farmers of Tudiya village apprehending damage to their standing crops. Forest department officials said today that the elephants had strayed into the forest areas from the border areas of the neighbouring Karna-taka and have been wreaking havoc there. They have been monitoring the elephants’ move and will take necessary steps in this conne...
2005-02-17 - NEW HAVEN, United States.
Elephants, of course. The Asian elephant, the African forest elephant, and the African Savannah elephant. Before evolution settled on the ultimate model, it experimented with different shaped tusks, teeth, skulls, trunks and size. Check them all out at an exhibit sensibly called "Elephants!" at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. The exhibit runs through July 31. Modern elephants were preceded by a succession of now extinct elephant-like animals called proboscideans (from ...
2005-02-16 - HOT SPRINGS, United States. Cathy Nelson
More than 50 scientists from 15 countries have already registered to attend and present papers at the second International World of Elephants Congress to be held at the Mueller Center in Hot Springs, South Dakota this September. The conference is open to the public. The Congress allows persons engaged in research on elephants, mammoths, mastodons and related fauna of the Pleistocene and Holocene to gather and share the results of their research with colleagues, as well as w...
2005-02-16 - Kohora, India. Bano Haralu
In Kaziranga, celebrations to mark the park's 100 years are being dominated by serious issues like ways to prevent the man-elephant conflict (The state recorded 85 elephant killings by angry villagers and 96 human deaths by elephants between 1996 and 2004.) and putting an end to rhino poaching here. Home to the largest population of the endangered one horned rhino, Kaziranga National Park is facing serious environmental challenges.
2005-02-15 - Alexandria, Virginia, United States. U.S. Newswire
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is charged with abusing endangered Asian elephants, and former employee Tom Rider has new videotape evidence -- obtained from Ringling Bros. itself -- to prove his case. Rider, who quit the circus in 1999 to speak out against its cruelty, is protesting the circus's Feb. 17 opening in Atlanta. Some of the gruesome footage shows the birth of Riccardo, an elephant who died at the age of 8-months last August, after he fractured both hind legs when he fell of...
2005-02-14 - Hohenwald, Tennessee, United States.
After a six-year effort to help Lota, an aged Asian elephant diagnosed with tuberculosis, Lota was released to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. She died less than three months later. On November 17, 2004, after months of delays, Lota and Misty, one of her herd members who had also tested positive for tuberculosis, were released to the Sanctuary.
2005-02-14 - Melbourne, Australia.
How the elephant got its ears has just become a more complicated story thanks to the discovery of a fossilised shrew-like animal that lived 115 million years ago. It was once thought that all mammals - from kangaroos to whales - developed the tiny auditory bones of the middle ear just once in their common evolutionary history. But a fossil jawbone of a primitive mammal that lived in Australia suggests that the middle-ear bones - which allow animals as diverse as shrews and humans to hear sounds ...
2005-02-13 - ANCHORAGE, Alaska, United States.
The Daily News asked readers what they thought should happen to Maggie the elephant in Alaska Zoo. Here's a sampling of the many responses.
2005-02-13 - Vienna, Austria. Tiergarten Schönbrunn
The female africant Jumbo in Vienna Zoo is dead. When the elephant keepers came for work in the morning, she was dead. During the nights, the elephants are filmed on video, and the vido shows that the rest of the elephant herd tried without success, to push Jumbos 3.5 ton heavy body up, but she died in the early morning due to circulation problems and general weakness.
2005-02-13 - Kaziranga, India. India News
A mahout was trampled to death by an elephant at a national park in Assam, dampening the spirit of the sanctuary's centenary celebrations. A wildlife warden said a female elephant suddenly went berserk at the Kaziranga National Park in eastern Assam Saturday evening and trampled elephant keeper Gathia Munda, 35. "Two elephants and their keepers were taking rest beneath a tree inside the park when suddenly one of them attacked Munda. In seconds, the enraged elephan...
2005-02-12 - Indianapolis, United States. Dan McFeely
An elephant is pregnant, and pop icon Michael Jackson might just be a proud grandpa, sort of. Ivory, an African elephant at the Indianapolis Zoo, is expecting her second baby. And the father is . . . well, we don't really know. But there is a 50-50 chance that it's Ali -- once the proud pachyderm owned by Jackson, who tried to breed him at his Neverland zoo near Los Angeles before giving him away in 1997. Ali, who now resides at the Jacksonville Zoo in Florida, is o...
2005-02-12 - GUWAHATI, India.
Thousands of tourists flocked to a famed national park in India's northeastern state of Assam to watch a colourful elephant procession as part of the sanctuary's weeklong centenary celebrations. Thirty elephants, with visitors sitting atop, on Saturday marched along a two mile (1.25 mile) route inside Kaziranga National Park to the beat of drums and cymbals.
2005-02-12 - Nairobi, Kenya.
For over 10 years now, Salome Gachago has been counting elephants and finds few things in life as exciting. For her, writes Edward Indakwa, the thrill of being up in the air, the rush of adrenaline as the pilot navigates through aerial bumps is simply beyond description. On a normal working day, Gachago — the Kenya Wildlife Service’s tourism development manager — is all serious and businesslike. But once every other year, she trades her business suit for khaki pants and heads into Tsavo Na...
2005-02-12 - Ranchi , India. Indo-Asian News Service
Elephants are a major problem in some areas but they are also the Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) election symbol - adding to a jumbo dilemma for the party as it campaigns in rural Jharkhand in areas terrorised by tusker attacks. And people in the affected areas of this state are driving away the BSP candidates just as they do the elephants. It all appears to be a cruel joke for the six contestants in Gumla and Simdega districts where people have been tackling tuskers rampaging their...
2005-02-12 - Ontario, Canada. ERIC REGULY
Zookeeper Michael Hackenberger has a problem, a really big problem: how to get all seven tonnes of Angus the elephant from Bowmanville Zoo, Ontario, to Kwandwe game reserve in South Africa. Angus, the world's largest elephant in captivity, is due to be returned to the wild after 24 years, but no one has quite figured out the logistics of moving the beast, who weighs as much as six Ford Focuses.
2005-02-11 - Limpopo, South Africa. SABC News
A vasectomy has been performed on two elephants at the Mabalingwe nature reserve outside Bela-Bela in the Limpopo province. The operation performed by a team of local and international veterinarians is the first of its kind in the world. It is hoped that the operation will help solve the problem of the overpopulated elephant family. The first operation succeeded without any complications and the young bull headed for its breeding herd. Its mate died of undetermined complications ...
2005-02-10 - SINGAPORE, Indonesia. DPA
Tetanus vaccines are being rushed from the Singapore Zoo to tsunami-battered Banda Aceh, Indonesia, where elephants helping in the cleanup are at risk of tetanus, a deadly muscle-stiffening disease, wildlife officials said on Wednesday. After more than a month spent clearing shattered homes and picking up belongings, the tired animals trudge back to camp daily after six- hour shifts often with wounds from nails, glass and mangled metal. Their veterinarian, Dr. Chris...
2005-02-09 - Kaziranga, India. PULLOCK DUTTA
The silhouette of the “elephant queen” juts out of the darkening sky in a unique settlement deep inside the Kaziranga National Park. Parbati Baruah, the lone woman elephant trainer in the country, is surveying the “mahout village” that will host one of the most-anticipated events of the park’s centenary celebrations. Speaking loudly over strains of Goalpariya folk songs in the background, she said the settlement at the Bagori range of the park would provide a must-see ca...
2005-02-05 - BRAZZAVILLE, Congo. BRYAN MEALER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Leaders of seven Central African countries signed a landmark treaty on Saturday to work together to help save the world's second largest rain forest. French President Jacques Chirac attended the ceremony, which concluded a two-day summit focusing on threats to the great forests of the Congo Basin. The forests make up very heart of Africa, encompassing 500 million acres stretching though 10 countries. They are also home to more than half Africa's animal species, incl...
2005-02-03 - Detroit, United States. HUGH McDIARMID JR.
Winky and Wanda, the Detroit Zoo's sanctuary-bound elephants, are still at least weeks away from their trip to a California retirement community. In the meantime, they're like many of us in the midst of a cold Michigan winter: staying indoors too much; enduring extra pain from arthritis and old athletic injuries; eating, eating and eating until we feel as big as ... well, you know. "The weather has not been kind to their arthritis," zoo Director Ron Kagan said Tuesd...
2005-02-02 - New Delhi, India. India News
How many times have you marvelled at a caparisoned Indian elephant without sparing a thought for its plight amid alien sights and sounds, far from its home in the wilderness? Now animal lover P. Balan has made a hard-hitting documentary highlighting the cruelty and hypocrisy towards the pachyderms, which are much loved even as they are subjected to unnerving human rituals. Balan, a programme executive at the All India Radio, Thrissur, in his Malayalam film "The 18t...
2005-02-01 - FORT WAYNE, Indiana, United States. Associated Press
The manager of a circus where an elephant trampled its trainer to death while being loaded into a truck said he believed the man's death was an accident. "We don't believe from the behavior of the animals it was a premeditated, aggressive killing," Larry Solheim, general manager of the Tarzan Zerbini Circus, said today. The trainer, Pierre Spenle, 40, of Texas, died Monday after he was taken to a Fort Wayne hospital with critical chest injuries. It was not clear whether Spenle fell or whether an...
2005-01-31 - CHICAGO, United States. TARA BURGHART
The memorial service was held outside, with a few mourners, bunches of flowers and a framed photo of the 55-year-old deceased, an elephant named Peaches. She was the oldest African elephant in an American zoo when she died Jan. 17 at Lincoln Park Zoo. But her death - which came three months after a younger pachyderm named Tatima died at the zoo - has renewed complaints from animal-welfare activists that elephants do not belong in cold-weather zoos.
2005-01-31 - Fort Wayne, IN, United States.
A day at the circus turned tragic Monday in Fort Wayne, after an elephant crushed a circus worker. The accident happened Monday afternoon in the Memorial Coliseum parking lot. Workers for the Shrine Circus were loading the elephants onto a trailer, when Pierre Spenle, 40, fell beneath the elephants when a security bar he was leaning on gave way, and he got crushed by the elephants.
2005-01-31 - Bangalore, India. Born Free Foundation
Born Free Foundation, the internationally recognised wildlife and animal welfare charity today expressed deep reservations concerning the proposed gift of a young Asian elephant from India to the Republic of Armenia. According to information received by the Foundation, the animal is due to leave Bangalore in southern India and is destined for Yerevan Zoo in Armenia. The exchange is in the form of a diplomatic gift consigned by the Prime Minister of India to his counter-part in Arm...
2005-01-31 - Oakland, United States.
It was a cold 8 a.m. at the Oakland Zoo's elephant compound, but 36- year-old M'Dunda was enjoying a warm-water bath. Her feet got special treatment, as if she were a matron at a Napa Valley spa. A keeper cleaned them gently with a scrub brush and used an X-Acto knife to gingerly search for sticks and rocks, as M'Dunda was hand-fed fruit chunks while she stood in a restraint chute. "Keeping elephants in captivity is incredibly labor-intensive," said general curato...
2005-01-30 - Kilifi, Kenya. Caroline Mango
Close to 200 elephants have invaded five villages in Kenya, destroying crops and killing livestock. The elephants from the Arabuko Sokoke Forest in Ganze, Kilifi District have imposed curfews in the villages, and are leaving a trail of destruction in their search for food and water. Fearful villagers have had to keep in-doors from as early as 5.30 pm afraid of being attacked. Over the past few months, the situation has spun out of control following the killing of livestock by the elephants. In D...
2005-01-30 - Pendang, Malaysia. EMBUN MAJID
Pepsi, a six-year-old show elephant that gored a rubber tapper in Pendang on Friday, has been “acquitted” of killing its victim. Pendang OCPD Deputy Supt Mohd Sukri Awang said police had classified the case as “sudden death” and found that no criminal action was involved. The Kedah office of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) also said no action would be taken against the elephant and classified the case as an accident.
2005-01-29 - Kaziranga, India. India News
Mangal Karmakar may not have played football at the highest level, but he is busy training an "elephantine" team for a match at a famed wildlife sanctuary in Assam. The players are all bubbling with enthusiasm - they are all pachyderms after all! They are undergoing regular drills and practice sessions under the watchful eyes of coach Karmakar inside the Kaziranga National Park in eastern Assam.
2005-01-29 - Thiruvananthapuram, India.
A railway court has imposed a fine of Rs 1500 on a mahout for taking a tusker along the rail track as a short-cut to a temple near Perumon in Kollam district. The court at Kollam imposed the fine on the mahout for marching the elephant through the track endangering the safety of railways as well as the public, a divisional railway release said here today.
2005-01-28 - Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Mark Forbes
The elephants let out a mournful roar with each effort, clearing fallen trees and crushed cars, and exposing more bodies a month after the tsunami swept away much of Banda Aceh. Trained in basic circus tricks, they wrap their trunks around fallen trees or shift small trucks, one pushing, one pulling. Aceh's conservation chief, Andi Basrul, flew back to Banda Aceh the morning after the wall of water struck to find his house gone, along with his wife and son. He reali...
2005-01-28 - Chicago, United States. Leslie M. Golden, Oak Park, Letters to Chicago Sun Times
The death of two elephants at the Lincoln Park Zoo should come as no surprise. While it is obvious that cold weather is bad for species that have evolved in tropical climates, understanding the death-inducing effect of confinement to concrete cells requires a rudimentary knowledge of physics (I have taught astronomy at the University of Illinois at Chicago). When animals take a step in their natural, sod environment, the concussion felt when the foot lands is muffled. When walking...
2005-01-27 - Nairobi, Kenya. Nixon Ng’ang’a
No deal has been agreed yet between Kenya and Thailand governments to donate a collection of wildlife species to the Asian country. Acting Tourism Minister Raphael Tuju dismissed reports that the Government had offered Thailand 300 animals, including some rare species as "speculation and rumours from busy bodies." The minister said the matter was still under consideration and details over the agreement would be made public when a decision is arrived at.
2005-01-26 - Chicago, United States. ANDREW HERRMANN
With two of her pals now gone, the last remaining elephant at Lincoln Park Zoo is turning to TV for companionship. Cartoons, specifically. Dumbo, perhaps? Peanuts, maybe? Lincoln Park Zoo general curator Robyn Barbiers wasn't sure -- not that show selection matters. The value of TV for an elephant is in the novelty, the movement and the noise, she said. Zoo officials, attempting to keep Wankie sharp after the deaths of her two companions, are using a variety of what...
2005-01-26 - NAIROBI, Kenya. Marc Lacey, The New York Times
Animal welfare groups have condemned plans by the Kenyan government to send 300 wild animals, including rhinos, cheetahs and lions, to Thailand, where they are to be placed in zoos and safari parks. Kenyan officials portray the transfer as part of an effort to increase tourism to Kenya and ultimately to help the country's animal population. Kenyan tourism has been on the rise over the last year, and Asia is viewed as an important source of new visitors. While it has...
2005-01-26 - Chicago, United States. William Mullen, Chicago Tribune
Preliminary laboratory tests have ruled out tuberculosis--a disease that can be transmitted between humans and animals--as cause of death for the two Lincoln Park Zoo elephants who died in recent months, according to results released Tuesday. Zoo officials had suspected that Tatima, a 35-year-old female African elephant, had been tuberculous because of lesions found on her lungs. Test results now show she died of a rare infection with a bacterium similar to TB, called Mycobacteriu...
2005-01-26 - ANCHORAGE, Alaska, United States. Mary Pemberton, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Alaska's only elephant should be moved to a zoo with better facilities and programs where she can enjoy the company of other female elephants, the head of a national zoo group said Wednesday. "In our view, the elephant could thrive better elsewhere," said Sydney J. Butler, executive director of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association in Washington, D.C. The AZA represents 214 accredited zoos and aquariums in the United States, Canada, Bermuda and Hong Kong. The...
2005-01-26 - Lampang, Thailand.
The National Elephant Institute, patronage of Her Royal Highness princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra, with the Forest Industry Organization, Lampang, in co-operation with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Lanpang Tourism Association, presents the Valantine's Day Wedding Ceremony on Elephant-Back.
2005-01-24 - Clacton, United Kingdom. Metro
He might not have a worn a Burberry cap or driven an Escort XR3i - but Essex man was alive and well 500,000 years ago. Even then, he had a tough guy image and was fighting other tribes - and elephants. He might even have broken away from mainstream society by using tools similar to Stanley knives to slash prey to death. Archaeologists have found stone blades in Clacton near the remains of a giant elephant - one of a number of large species in ancient Britain's warm climate. 'The tools were like ...
2005-01-21 - Thiruvananthapuram, India.
Pygmy elephants in Kerala? Unlikely, says an expert disputing the claims of two people that they sighted such pachyderms in a state forest. Jacob Cheeran, one of India's foremost elephant experts, doubts the possibility of pygmy elephants being spotted near a wildlife forest at Peppara in the capital district. The claim was made by wildlife photographer Sali Palode and a local tribesman, Mannan, who said they saw a group of five elephants, all small in size but look...
2005-01-21 - Phuket, Thailand. WASSANA NANUAM
More than 100 elephants and their mahouts have been put out of work by the Dec 26 tsunami. Elephant camp owners say they can not afford to keep the animals on the payroll because there are too few tourists paying to see the shows. Ten elephants and their handlers were laid off at the Phuket Elephant Ride camp alone. Before the tragedy the camp paid each mahout 12,000 baht per month.
2005-01-21 - Kinshasa, Congo.
The Democratic Republic of Congo's police and army have been accused of involvement in rampant poaching that threatens to wipe out the elephants in a world heritage site in the east of the country, a study has warned. An estimated 17 tons of ivory were smuggled out of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the volatile Ituri district during the last six months of last year alone, the investigation by the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature established. "Although a sig...
2005-01-20 - Bangkok, Thailand. The Daily Telegraph
Visitors to a Thai elephant camp were treated to a call of nature with a difference yesterday, as five-year-old Diew demonstrated how to use and flush an oversized toilet. The massive but immodest beast had no problem posing for the cameras as he went about his business. Handlers at the camp, in northern Thailand's Chiang Mai province, have previously taught their elephants to paint, dance and play musical instruments. But their latest feat is guaranteed to m...
2005-01-20 - Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Environment Writer
Twin elephants have been born in Addo Elephant National Park near Port Elizabeth - only the third time that twins have been born in the history of the park. The baby elephants, now one month old, are both doing well so far, and staff are watching their progress anxiously. Megan Bradfield, the park's social ecologist, said yesterday the second month of life of elephant twins was critical. "Elephant twins are very rare. We've had two sets of elephant tw...
2005-01-20 - Chiang Mai, Thailand. JARUNEE TAEMSAMRAN
Elephant painting is not new in Thailand but it is still amaziang to see the paintings by the pachyderms of Maesa Elephant Camp in Chiang Mai. Instead of the usual, abstract-style paintings that you may have seen or imagine from elephant artists, the well-trained elephants at this camp astonish visitors with paintings of beautiful flowers and motifs that look so realistic that you wouldn't believe it's the work of elephants. Elephant painting is part of the elephant...
2005-01-20 - Chicago, United States. William Mullen and Jon Yates
Having lost two of its three elephants in the last three months, Lincoln Park Zoo on Wednesday said it would send the last one to another facility while its staff re-examines the future of its elephant program. Wankie, 35, an African elephant who lost her two female companions, Tatima, 35, in October and Peaches, 55, on Monday, will move from Chicago as soon as an appropriate home can be found for her, zoo officials said.
2005-01-20 - Kinshasa, Congo. David Lewis
A new report on ivory poaching in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has picked out the country's fractious army and the police among those heavily involved. The study by Congo's national conservation body warns that if poaching continues at the current level, forest elephants will be threatened with extinction in the east of country. Congo's five-year war may have officially come to an end in 2003, but for conservationists working in the lawless east of the vast Afri...
2005-01-19 - Chicago, United States. ANDREW HERRMANN
North America's oldest captive elephant, brought to Lincoln Park Zoo amid protests that Chicago's climate was too cold, has died. The 55-year-old female African elephant named Peaches was found Monday morning collapsed on the floor of her indoor pen, her eyes unfocused and her breathing "labored,'' officials said. Veterinarians euthanized the animal Monday evening.
2005-01-19 - SAN DIEGO, United States.
Several animal activists went to the San Diego Zoo Wednesday to call on the zoo industry to acknowledge that elephant enclosures are "deadly" and to take steps to move the animals to more natural sanctuaries. The plea follows the euthanization of a 55-year-old African elephant named Peaches on Monday at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo.
2005-01-18 - Chiang Mai, Thailand. CHEEWIN SATTHA
The Chiang Mai night safari park will definitely open on April 13 as planned, Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop said. Construction work at the park was about 80% complete and some sections of the new zoo would be open to visitors during the Songkran festival, starting on April 13, as scheduled, he said. Mr Suwit, who oversees tourism, yesterday visited the safari park site at tambon Mae Hia in Chiang Mai's Muang district. He said Kenya had agree...
2005-01-18 - South Carolina, United States. www.thestate.com
Did you hear the one about the elephant that painted a picture and raised $7,000 for tsunami relief? No, Talk isn’t telling elephant jokes here. It’s true. A record $7,000 was bid for the latest artwork by Rasha, the Fort Worth Zoo’s painting elephant, with every cent going to the American Red Cross. The painting drew 51 bids from across the country on eBay, with the winning bid coming from a Texas car dealership. The Calgary Zoo in Alberta, Canada, liked the ...
2005-01-18 - Rochester, New York, United States.
On Tuesday, the Seneca Park Zoo will show off its plans for the elephants' new digs. The session will be held at the zoo's Animal Health and Education Complex from 4:00 p.m. to 8 p.m. The new 27,000 square foot space will include a barn, a pool, and room for visitors. Last week, Monroe County lawmakers voted to borrow $4 million to build a new exhibit. There are currently two elephants at the zoo and one of them, Genny C, is expecting a baby in March ...
2005-01-16 - CHIANG MAI, Thailand.
The world’s largest night safari is scheduled to open in the northern province of Chiang Mai in April, following top level negotiations between the Thai and Kenyan governments on the exchange of Thai elephant mahouts for Kenyan wildlife. The national importance of the Chiang Mai Night Safari project, which the government hopes will prove a massive tourist draw, was highlighted today when Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop led a government delegation to the construction site...
2005-01-15 - Seattle, United States.
Bamboo, a 38-year-old elephant with no close friends at Woodland Park Zoo and a limited tolerance for the high jinks of baby Hansa, is packing her trunk and heading for the zoo in Tacoma, which welcomes prickly pachyderms. The 4-ton Bamboo, an Asian elephant, was born in the wild in Thailand. She has lived in Seattle since she was a year old. "She'd never been exposed to a calf" and has not done well with 4-year-old Hansa, daughter of 26-year-old Asian elephant Chai, Woodland Park...
2005-01-12 - ST. LOUIS, United States. TERRY HILLIG, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Students at Principia College in Elsah don't have to trek hundreds or thousands of miles to participate in one of the country's most significant paleontological digs. In fact, they don't even have to leave campus. The 17,500-year-old bones of a woolly mammoth known affectionately as "Benny" (after the man who found him) are being carefully excavated in the middle of the Principia campus, only yards from dormitories and academic buildings.
2005-01-12 - Garden City, United States. The Associated Press
A second animal-rights group is criticizing the Lee Richardson Zoo because of the habitat it provides for its elephants.In Defense of Animals, based in Mill Valley, Calif., made the Garden City zoo fifth on its list of "worst zoos for elephants," calling the barn the two elephants have a jail cell.
2005-01-12 - Anchorage, Alaska, United States.
There are African elephants and there are Asian elephants, but there is only one Alaskan elephant. To animal-rights groups, the national zoo-accreditation group -- and, probably, most anyone who thinks a modern zoo should not condone suffering -- that's one too many.
2005-01-12 - Sumatra, Indonesia. Daniel Hoare
DEFORESTATION and an increase in ivory hunting will follow the Sumatran tsunami in the coming months as a displaced Aceh population searches for new forms of income. In Melbourne yesterday, southeast Asian wildlife experts Joe Heffernan and Matt Hunt arrived to highlight the urgency of wildlife preservation projects in the devastated region.
2005-01-12 - ROYAL OAK, Michigan, United States.
The Detroit Zoo's two aging, arthritic elephants are surviving a typically harsh Michigan winter, but it is taking its toll. "Every winter we have more problems, which is why we wanted to move them out of Michigan in the first place," said Ann Duncan, the zoo's chief veterinarian. "They have both developed new foot problems in the last few weeks."
2005-01-12 - Kruger National Park, South Africa. Melanie-Ann Feris
The little one kept on rolling in the mud, as if trying to disguise its strange colour with the dirt. The baby elephant, spotted among a herd in the southern part of the Kruger National Park, could be an albino or white elephant. The baby is believed to be about a month old, and an older sibling and its mother seemed very protective of it.
2005-01-12 - New York, United States. Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in New York City
Threatened by habitat loss, poaching, pollution and other factors, wildlife species across the globe are declining in number at an alarming rate. Scientists from the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in New York City have been monitoring endangered wildlife populations for more than 100 years. For decades, traditional capture and tag methods have been a primary tool, but they are not the most efficient when dealing with large animals and animals in remote locati...
2005-01-09 - ANCHORAGE, Alaska, United States. Sarah Kershaw, New York Times
She played in the snow. She played the harmonica. She snacked on hot dog buns and hay, chewed on birch bark and snorted. Still, it was impossible to answer the question that is causing so much consternation: Is Alaska's only elephant happy? Maggie, the African elephant who has resided at the Alaska Zoo since 1983 -- a creature of the tropics amid snow leopards and polar bears -- is, after all, said to be rather moody and prickly. But whether Maggie, a...
2005-01-09 - New Delhi, India. Prerna Singh Bindra
Much before first light, tourists at Khao Lak resort in Thailand were woken up by wails. When they tumbled out in the bitter cold dawn of December 26, they were confronted by the strange sight of agitated elephants, trumpeting. Crying, insist the mahouts, who had never seen the pachyderms behave such. The elephants ran, hurrying, for higher ground and confused, the people followed.
2005-01-08 - Houston, United States. SALATHEIA BRYANT, Houston Chronicle
The Houston Zoo has made a national animal-protection organization's list of the country's 10 worst zoos for pachyderms because of the number of deaths from herpes virus. In Defense of Animals this week labeled Houston's elephant program a "breeding ground for misery," noting that five elephants born at the Houston Zoo over the last 15 years have either died there or at other facilities where they had been shipped.
2005-01-08 - POLK CITY, United States. Lauren Glenn
You can see her coming from across the open field. She's nearly half a mile away, all leathery gray, dust-covered, wrinkled skin, her hair encrusted in dirt, her long nose and dimpled knees that barely bend when she walks. From the street, and even as she approaches, it is impossible to tell that she is pregnant and has been for about 16 months. She's solid, with a chiseled appearance, so much so that she looks like she has been carved from a giant rock, until she slowly begins to...
2005-01-07 - Shanghai, China.
A 53-year-old Shanghai resident thought he was rescuing cultural relics when he bought two Chinese ivory carvings at a Paris auction and brought them back home. But rather than thank him, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court yesterday sentenced Zheng Songqing to two years in prison with a probation of two years and fined him 15,000 yuan (US$1,807) for violating the country's laws on ivory trading.
2005-01-07 - KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia.
Two Borneo pygmy elephants stuck in a mud hole at an oil palm plantation in the east coast Lahad Datu district for about four days managed to get out of their predicament. The weakened female elephants managed to extricate themselves out yesterday after the area around the mud hole was flattened, said Sabah Wildlife Department officer-in-charge for Lahad Datu Stephen Gibin Sira.
2005-01-06 - KHAO LAK, Thailand. Mark Bendeich
Agitated elephants felt the tsunami coming, and their sensitivity saved about a dozen foreign tourists from the fate of thousands killed by the giant waves. "I was surprised because the elephants had never cried before," mahout Dang Salangam said on Sunday on Khao Lak beach at the eight-elephant business offering rides to tourists. The elephants started trumpeting -- in a way Dang, 36, and his wife Kulada, 24, said could only be described as crying -- at first ligh...
2005-01-06 - KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia.
A rescue is underway for two Borneo pygmy elephants trapped in a mud hole at an oil palm plantation near Kunak in the east coast of Sabah. Ten state Wildlife Department rangers and a veterinarian assisted by plantation workers have been trying to extricate the two female elephants since Tuesday.
2005-01-06 - Khao Lak, Thailand.
Agitated and crying elephants in the Thai resort of Khao Lak reportedly felt the tsunami approaching, and in the process saved about a dozen lives. The elephants, who were giving rides to foreign tourists, began trumpeting around the time the earthquake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra Island, according to their mahout. "I was surprised because the elephants had never cried before," said Dang Salangam, who operates an eight-elephant business on Khao Lak beach. ...
2005-01-06 - LOS ANGELES, United States. PRNewswire
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) Hollywood Office commends L.A. Superior Court Judge George H. Wu for pledging yesterday to reopen the Ruby the elephant lawsuit should the Los Angeles Zoo attempt to move the beleaguered female African elephant again in the foreseeable future. While dismissing the eighteen-month-old taxpayer lawsuit as moot, in light of 43 year-old Ruby's recent return to the Los Angeles Zoo, the decision provides plaintiff Catherine Doyle with the opportunity to se...
2005-01-06 - Kaziranga, India. India News
After the killer tsunami wreaked havoc in most South Asian tourist destinations, foreign and domestic visitors in their hundreds have been flocking to a wildlife sanctuary in India's northeastern state of Assam, officials said. Authorities at the internationally renowned Kaziranga National Park said they were unable to cope with the sudden surge in tourist flow to the sanctuary that is home to the endangered one-horned Indian rhinoceros.
2005-01-06 - Siliguri, India.
A 40-year-old female elephant was found dead in Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, which is situated in the outskirts of Siliguri in Dargeeling district. According to post mortem conducted, the elephant died due to a pathological disorder, which rules out the possibility of it being the victim of a hunting spree.
2005-01-05 - Los Angeles, United States.
A judge dismissed a case that might have resulted in another move for Ruby. She was relocated to the L.A. Zoo in November after spending more than one year in Tennessee. Ruby was moved from the Tennessee zoo after she did not integrate with a herd of African elephants. The case might be reopened if the zoo wants to move Ruby again. Zoo officials said Ruby is adjusting to her surroundings, but activists claim she should reside in an animal sanctuary.
2005-01-04 - Khao Lak, Thailand. Peter Alford
ALMOST a kilometre inland from the Khao Lak beachfront, where the shells of smashed tourist resorts have been meticulously combed by earthmovers and mechanical shovels, two elephants are helping the search for the overlooked victims. Sood Lho (Handsome) and Phrai Wang (Jungle Palace) are working the banks of a fetid, junk-filled swamp that until Boxing Day was an irrigation dam for surrounding vegetable gardens and rubber trees.
2005-01-03 - Fang Nga, Thailand.
A year ago, they were filming battle scenes for the movie Alexander. Now six elephants are pitching in to help with the massive cleanup from the tsunami that devastated many of Thailand's prime tourist destinations. The massive waves, which killed 5,000 and left nearly 4,000 others missing, dumped debris up to two kilometres from the popular beaches of Aphotic island and Fang Nga province a week ago. While heavy machinery works on the tangled wreckage that used to be posh seafront resorts, some ...
2005-01-03 - KHAO LAK, Thailand.
Agitated elephants felt the tsunami coming, and their sensitivity saved about a dozen tourists in Thailand from the fate of thousands killed by the giant waves. "I was surprised because the elephants had never cried before," mahout Dang Salangam said yesterday on Khao Lak beach of the eight elephants who give rides to tourists.
2005-01-03 - Banda Aceh, Indonesia. CNN
They may not carry the title "man's best friend," but elephants are providing priceless help as Indonesia struggles to recover from the tsunamis that killed more than 94,000 in that country alone and leveled entire towns. In Aceh province, Indonesia's ground zero, the gentle giants are doing the work of both man and machine. "The elephants help us evacuate survivors or bodies that could possibly be trapped under the rubble as heavy equipment has still not been able to get here," said Zaenal of t...
2005-01-02 - PHUKET, Thailand. Karishma Vyas
Elephants joined the search for bodies in Thailand's tsunami-devastated coastal region on Sunday, clearing debris-strewn forests for rescue teams to retrieve rotting corpses. Six jumbos, who featured in Oliver Stone's recent blockbuster "Alexander", were trucked in from an elephant camp in the ancient capital Ayuthaya, 800 km (500 miles) north of shattered Phuket island, to help speed up the search operation.
2005-01-01 - Phuket, Thailand. UPI
Thai officials are using elephants to retrieve the bodies of the people who died in this week's deadly tsunamis, Sky News reported Saturday. Two dozen elephants are moving through the resort island of Phuket and the mainland beaches of Khao Lak in a search for bodies, many of which are buried beneath the rubble of buildings and tons of sand and debris.
