Dublin Zoo Elephants » Dublin Zoo

02-09-2007

So Judy went to Dublin from Chester first right? And Kirsty was presumably the other Dublin Elephant that left with her for Germany. I think Kirsty was the last elephant at Glasgow zoo.

Belfast really needs to enlarge its elephant facility, compared to the rest of the elephant holdings in the UK it is sorely lacking. I wouldn't want to see pregnant cows return to Belfast in the current enclosure. Even Blackpool, with 4 post-reproductive cows, now has a grass paddock for them. Similarly, if Belfast were to only keep elephants of no breeding value due to its inadequate facilities, it would be a shame for any elephant to spend its final years in that house.

02-09-2007

Yes Judy was Jubilee's mother at Chester. She must have gone to Dublin, not Belfast. They moved these two old females to Germany when they built the new facility for breeding elephants.

NoBBy was Jubilee's father. He escaped and ran amok in fields near the zoo. Had to be shot. He's buried in the Asian rhino/deer paddock...

Frodolin/Sahib I believe came from Cricket St Thomas who had Asian elephants for a while(no any more) He must have been there between 'Luka' who went to Port Lympne, but Jubilee.

02-09-2007

I've only seen photos, which don't give a real impression of what its like, but it looked pretty drab. They need to rethink Elephants at Belfast, obviously.

02-09-2007

I believe the plan in Belfast is to send Jothi and Vishesh to another zoo together where they can breed and aquire some non-breeding females as company for Tina.

I am not sure where Jothi and Vishesh are going but I am pretty sure that Dublin would be a bad choice, since they have a very close-knit family unit and adding adult females, especially a female like Jothi who is not very social, is asking for troubles. It is very likely that they would never come along and why destroying the peace in the Dublin group?

02-09-2007

Sahib was at Belfast before Luka, before going to Cricket St. Thomas in the 1991. The Cricket St. Thomas facility was far too small to house a bull and the cows didn't accept him, possibly because, as a hand-reared animal, he was badly socialised. Needless to say there was little chance of breeding from him and the park had him shot at the mid-1990s, which caused an outcry if I remember, partly because they had put down a healthy animal, with Lezpig zoo (Sahib was housed here before Belfast) saying they would have taken him back, and because there was allegedly pressure on that part of the park to be redeveloped into a theme park (Cricket St. Thomas was involved with some sort of Noel Edmonds enterprise to create a 'Mr. Blobby' park there, which is partly why euthanising this animal got so much press attention). I don't know whether the remaining females left as a result of this or whether there were plans to remove the elephants and that they 'couldn't' find a new home for the bull.

02-09-2007

[quote=Yassa;20578]I believe the plan in Belfast is to send Jothi and Vishesh to another zoo together where they can breed and aquire some non-breeding females as company for Tina.

I am not sure where Jothi and Vishesh are going but I am pretty sure that Dublin would be a bad choice, /QUOTE]

Well, I'm pleased to hear that- it makes very good sense. It doesn't matter where they go as long as there is a bull available. If as you say, Dublin isn't a good choice because Jothi is a difficult mixer, it may be hard finding a situation which does suit them. After all, most zoos with a Bull already have an established group of females too. The best scenario would perhaps be if these two females , together with a male, were to start a new breeding group somewhere?

02-09-2007

That's very interesting account of the Cricket St Thomas elephant era. I missed out on most of that and its quite an eye-opener. I do have a postcard somewhere of the elephants down by one of the Lakes.

The 'Mr Blobby' themepark idea fell flat on its face. Nowadays Cricket St Thomas has a rather 'genteel' feel about it,- its owned by Warners the holiday people and the Mansion is a hotel/health resort. The animal collection seems to still grow slowly a bit each year but it has never been remarkable to my mind. Yet they have a superb location with the chain of lakes running through the valley.

03-09-2007

The elephant cows were often photographed in the car park or in the valley for promotional material, but they were never housed in a grass paddock. For many years the enclosure was quite literally a pit, near to the entrance. The second enclosure was a smallish sand paddock the other side of the walled garden, and it was here that the failed attempt to keep a bull occurred.

That's good news about the Belfast elephants, if only they would stop keeping them altogether....

03-09-2007

Yassa,

Do you know the timeframe for this upcoming move of Jothi+Vishsesh? Do you know which facility they would go to (Woburn?)?
Any plans for Belfast to redevelop their elephant exhibit when they move out?


Coming back to Judy and Kristy: both came via Dublin Zoo to Neunkirchen. Current policy within the EEP is to have older non-reproductive cows also moved in pairs to non-breeding locations.

The Cricket St. Thomas elephants: Sahib/Fridolin died 1994 (only moved in in 1991), female Shiva died 1993 (at only 21 after only a year residing at Chard) and female Millie died 1996 (at only 25). The other females were moved out in 1999: females Toto (47, removed to Valwo, Valladolid in 2004), Nika (41, died 12/1999) and Chikky (39).

03-09-2007

I don`t know a time frame but I hope the transfer will happen this year. I don`t think Woburn is already in the position to take new females since the new facilities are not yet finished (I am not even sure if they have started building...) and the old barn is never big enough for 2 more elephants. No idea about plans in Belfast to redevelop the elephant exhibit.

03-09-2007

If they are to stay in UK, the only options are Dublin, Chester, Woburn or Whipsnade. (Of course they could go elsewhere in Europe too.)

Of these four collections, its possible only Whipsnade would currently have room to take them?

03-09-2007

i know i started the thread on woburn based on a photo from flickr, but does anyone know for certain if they have started the new elephant centre yet, or was this maybe the african ungulate centre in the background or some other new building.

05-09-2007

I recently visited Dublin Zoo and was given a behind the scenes tour of the Elephant exhibit by a member of staff. There approach to design and husbandry are amazing. For part of the design they used the firm Jones and Jones who have done a lot of work with San Diego.
I will post photo's soon.

12-04-2008

In the article of Yasmin's birth i read the zoo is looking for a new bull does anyone know what bull? I haven't been able to find anything!

12-04-2008

i would suggest that they build a house to house the Bull before they get one.