Short news from European Zoos

me too!! what a spectacular looking animal.

melbourne traditionally always trim their bull, bong su's, tusks, though they have let them get a bit longer again of late. i think it may have been out of fear that if they let them get long there was greater risk of him damaging or knocking one out, which can be deadly for elephants if an infection sets in..

He is a great looking animal, nice set of tusks

I would recognise Melbourne's 'Bong Su' quite easily from a photo- he has one distinctive straight tusk doesn't he... He's a nice bull too. Its fairly unusual to see bulls in captivity wih a really good set of tusks- as you said they're very prone to being damaged, resulting in infections in the socket. In the past in some zoos they used to saw bull's tusks very short- ugh, how painful was that I wonder, and how did they manage to restrain the bull to do it? (Nowadays its probably a lot easier).

I think Emmen's bull 'Radza' is pretty reknowned for that superb Ivory he's got...

Would any one know of any other bulls that carry such huge tusks as Radza?

African elephant born in Tierpark Berlin. Yesterday, August 22, Bibi gave birth to a healthy female calf of 95 kilograms. The father is Tembo, and this is his 7th descendant. For Bibi this is her second calf.
The baby is not named yet.

Mark,

More like carried ... I fear. Examples were Ramon at Rotterdam Zoo, NL, Murugan at Amsterdam Zoo and Siam at Paris Vincennes Zoo, France. These are all deceased now, but individuals of a certain age that developped large impressive tusks.

I guess most bulls in European zoos are simply not that advanced in age to have such massive tuskers yet (the tradition of keeping bulls in European zoos is alas a tradition that has only really taken off in the last 10 years or so).

I've seen photos of most of the above mentioned- none quite compare with Radza though?

Does anyone know why some bulls don't grow any tusks at all(as opposed to having them shortened or removed?)

That's not really what I meant to ask. I believe it's a genetic condition that decides if a bull has tusks or not. Does anyone knows how tusks or 'tusklessness'(?) is determined though i.e. is it inherited from the father, or both parents or what?
Example; the ex Chester bull 'Chang' has no tusks. Is his father 'Cheng mei' at Copenhagen also tuskless?

I am sure that it is a genetic condition but it is not that easy that it only depends on the father. Chang is a good example: his father Chieng Mai has HUGE tusks (nearly as long as Radza`s), while Chang is tuskless, but one of Chang`s sons in Bellewaerde/Belgium is a tusker. The former breeding bull from Emmen, Naing Thein, is tuskless, and most of his sons have only small "tushes". But one of his sons, Aung Bo, has real tusks, although I guess they will always stay relatively short. So the genes of the mother and the grandparents must play a role too.

There are not many bulls in Europe who are older then 30, but many who are only around 10-15 years, and some of them already have very impressive sets of tusks and will likely become big tuskers like Radza in the next decades. For example Sammy/Amersfoort and Victor/ Zoo Berlin. The new bull in Rotterdam, Timber, is only 9 and already has an impressive set of tusks, so I think he is a good condidate too.

The giant otters in Dortmund have 5 cubs and so far all are alive... keep your fingers crossed.

The hamlyn`s monkeys in Leipzig Zoo have a baby, I think this species has also bred in Mulhouse and Edinburgh this year. Good news and since (as far as I know) these are the only zoos in Europe who breed this species much needed!

looking at isis clouded leopards have recently been born at prague, howletts and the rare species conservation centre at sandwich, kent. Hopefully they will all be successful

The young at Prague are a couple that recently came from Howlett's and both their offspring are fine and now a couple of months old. Frankfurt also had i believe 2 young (or at least 1) and i haven't heared anything negative so i guess they're ok.

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i think to be honest most of the clouded leopard in europe can trace their way back to howletts

Well, if you want to be complete i would say Khao Kheow Open Zoo which has a large breeding facility largely sponsored by the Aspinall's...

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One of the three lion cubs of Rotterdam Zoo drowned in the water yesterday. It is not certain yet what caused the fall into the water but it seems she lost control over her body. We're waiting for an official statement of the zoo. The lions were inside today, no public allowed.

The three young polar bears of Ouwehands Zoo moved to Dierenrijk Europe in Mierlo. This is just temporarely until the new polar bear enclosure in Rotterdam is finished (begin 2008). The old polar beas enclosure of Ouwehands is to be renovated and the building of a third enclosure started. Thid will be a special males enclosure.

In Emmen Zoo a hippo died three days after its birth.