Moderator’s note: There are no plans to bring younger Asian elephants to our facility at this time.

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/whatsnew/

Moderator’s note: We’ve adjusted the view.

Will the one African elephant currently residing at SDZ continue to be in contact with the Asian elephants joining them? I ask because it is my understanding that after the death of the calf at NZP it was discovered that Asian and African elephants can not be housed together because African elephants carry “a novel herpes virus that causes a hemorrhagic (bleeding) disease in elephants.”…”There are two forms of EEHV. One form is latent (doesn’t cause disease) in African elephants, but causes the fatal disease in Asian elephants; the other form causes the disease in African elephants. Asian elephants may be infected with EEHV when they come into contact with African elephants, although there have also been cases in Asian elephants that have not been exposed to African elephants.”

If the plan is to create a “herd” at the SDZ of Asian elephants, will the lone African elephant be moved to WAP to be near the intact “family” of African elephants or will it eventually be moved to another facility? I would hate to have SDZ lose a calf like NZP did, and other facilities that weren’t aware of the issue until the research and necropsis was done to discover the cause of the sudden death of the calf.

For anyone who wants to know more, check out the elephant site at National Zoological Park and article under “Study” on “Tracking an Elephant Killer.” It is a sad story but very interesting and educational information.

Public Relations responds: The San Diego Zoo’s elephant herd is not a breeding group. Most of the elephants that will live in the new Elephant Odyssey habitat are past their reproductive age. The Zoo’s staff makes informed decisions on the care of animals based on new scientific information and will keep results such as these in the forefront when deciding how to care for its animals.

How about using shades of brown or gray non-toxic paint for the footstep pics?

Although, doesn’t one of the elephants at San Diego actually paint?

Moderator’s note: The three elephants at the Zoo have been trained to paint. Their keeper wrote a blog series about them at http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wordpress/default/zoo-elephants-meet-smitty/

When Elephant Odyssey opens this spring it will hold a total of eight elephants. These will include the three elephants currently at the San Diego Zoo (two Asian elephants and one African elephant) and the five Asian elephants relocating there from the the Wild Animal Park.

After the Asian elephants are relocated to Elephant Odyssey at the San Diego Zoo, their current yard at the Wild Animal Park will eventually be incorporated into the existing African elephant yard, giving our growing African elephant herd nearly 6 acres of space!

Also, using non-toxic paint to take the footprints is an excellent suggestion. We have tried this method before and the colorful paint can be new and alarming to the animals. Even Swazi avoided walking through a puddle of it on the floor in the barn! Therefore, we used water to take the calf footprints because they are obviously familiar with it.