News Video ...

Lets's keep our fingers crossed and pray that it fails a second time.

Hogle Zoo Orchestrates Plans for Elephant's Pregnancy

Getting pregnant doesn't usually require the help of Delta Air Lines, Federal Express and a team of experts from Germany. But that's exactly what's unfolding in Salt Lake City tonight.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=1030818

Elephant calf might help continue zoo's attendance spike

Nearly one million people walked through the turnstiles at Utah's Hogle Zoo in 2008 -- and if a little baby elephant has anything to do with it, 2009 will see the zoo surpass its attendance mark for the first time in its 78-year history.

The zoo, which reported 995,688 visitors last year, is expecting the arrival of an elephant calf late this summer. Baby elephants often supercharge zoo attendance.



http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://ww...Tue20T872G63s-Q

Bundle up and take a trip to Utah's Hogle Zoo

The Elephant Encounter exhibit features a large canopy next to the view of the elephants. Although it was quite chilly the day we were there, I can imagine this being a welcomed shady area in which to escape the heat. Hogle Zoo now has the oldest elephant in North America, Dari, who turned 48 on June 14, and another is pregnant.

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/301256/147/

In the wild, other female elephants in the herd support the mother and help with her new baby, the vet says.

At the zoo, Carpenter says, "We’ll be the aunts. We’ll help her and support her. We’re going to play the role of the herd."

The staff will intervene as little as possible and let Christie do things on her own, she adds. Once the calf is born, human helpers will move it aside until it’s standing on its own and Mom seems comfortable with the new arrival.

Although birth is a natural process, Christie’s a first-time mom and she may be uncertain about her squirmy bundle of joy.

"(The baby) is a new thing to her; it’s unusual, it looks funny, it smells funny. Not all moms get it right off the bat," the veterinarian says.


http://www.standard.net/live/news/172555

This flippant, jokey, puerile form of reporting makes me so angry. It strips Christie of any dignity she has left, and it reduces this invasive, cruel and dangerous breeding procedure to the level of a comic-book cartoon.

"Not all moms get it right off the bat," the veterinarian says. Excuse me? NATURAL elephant mothers in the wild do!

At the zoo, Carpenter says, "We’ll be the aunts. We’ll help her and support her. We’re going to play the role of the herd."
What arrogance! Someone needs reminding of the death rate due to captive births ....

"There’re a lot of risks and a lot of things that can go wrong," she says.
SO WHY ARE YOU BREEDING HER?

Christie is African, 23 years old. Rosa, African, was 24 years old when, on 6th November 2007, she was euthanised by the Colchester Zoo, UK. She had given birth to Jambo in 2004, severe discomfort followed; continuous treatment and a pain-killing regime failed to relieve her. Opal at Colchester Zoo is African, 28 years old, and pregnant by AI.
Christie, Rosa, Opal - all testament to the gamble zoos are willing to take with the lives of captive African elephants. So sad.

I agree with you s4e ...

Here is a link to video we took of the Elephant enclosure in August 2006. It is 12 minutes, but it includes footage of Misha who died last year. She had the longest tusk. Dari (Hadari) has a broken tusk and Christie has the shortest tusk.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6177813013990424563

Video ...

When asked if they knew who the daddy was and if they have cigars waiting, Carpenter replied, "We do know who the daddy is, and I'm sure they will have cigars at their end. He lives in Pittsburgh."

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6443481

8 photos ...

"In a way it's something to look forward to," Tomkinson said, adding the impending birth is a way to cope with the death of Misha, a Hogle Zoo elephant that had to be euthanized last September. "You never really forget a death."

Christie is still eating her usual two to four bales of high a day, but is monitored more closely and is getting more exercise than usual.

The zoo's other elephant is Dari, a 49-year-old female who is currently the oldest elephant in North America.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7053049...inkTrack=rss-30

Hogle Zoo elephant celebrates 49th birthday

The zoo will celebrate another milestone later this summer -- the youngest African elephant in captivity. Christie, Dari's roommate, is due to give birth in July or August, bringing the zoo's elephant population up to three.

With the new baby sure to take much of the publicity, Dari is enjoying the limelight while it lasts.

Braithwaite said Dari knew it was her special day last year, trumpeting and relishing the attention. The focus will be back on Dari again next year, when the zoo plans an even larger celebration for her 50th birthday.




http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12673778

Party marks 49th birthday for elephant at Hogle Zoo

One group far less impressed with Dari's historic birthday is In Defense of Animals, a new elephants' rights group, that believes elephants die prematurely in zoos.

Catherine Doyle, elephant welfare specialist for the IDA, said the unnatural conditions of zoos mean elephants still die prematurely, despite birthdays like Dari's.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7053131...t-turns-49.html

Anxious anticipation as elephant's pregnancy nears an end

After that, she said, the calf will be removed only for a short time -- just minutes, hopefully -- to do a few quick tests and to give Christie a chance to settle after the labor. "We want to make sure the baby smells like a baby elephant and not like us," Carpenter said.

Given the potential hazards ahead, Tomkinson said he's unlikely to feel settled even if the birth goes well. And as a father, that's a feeling he knows quite well.




http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12999991

After that, she said, the calf will be removed only for a short time -- just minutes, hopefully -- to do a few quick tests and to give Christie a chance to settle after the labor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFpDgDq8410

Or maybe, like at the Pittsburgh Zoo, to take some video and laugh while the baby elephant searches for mom.

From the above article:

". . . Cristie's legs will be harnessed to prevent her from hurting herself, the calf or her handlers . . . "

Wow, no chains, just harnesses, new word for the AZA. These people just disgust me.

IT'S A GIRL! ELEPHANT CALF BORN AT UTAH'S HOGLE ZOO

After a 22-month pregnancy, Hogle Zoo African elephant Christie has finally given birth to a female calf August 10, 2009. This is the first baby born to 23-year-old Christie. Interview opportunities with key staff will be available today only at 3 pm. It is not yet determined when Christie and her calf will be on exhibit to the public.


https://www.hoglezoo.org/about/news_media/p...tah-s-hogle-zoo

Same photo from the zoo website. Note the harness on the baby.

New arrival: Elephant born at Hogle Zoo

Salt Lake City now has its first newborn baby elephant in more than 89 years.

Christie, a 7,900-pound African elephant at Hogle Zoo delivered her first baby Monday afternoon, after a 22-month gestation.

The 251-pound and 36-inch tall female calf is reported to be doing well.

"The birth was extremely fast," elephant manager Doug Tomkinson said. "It went easy and well, but I can't believe how fast it happened."

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7053227...-Hogle-Zoo.html

SL - when I read "harness" I thought you were sarcastically using the new zoospeak for "chain" but to my surprise I see that there really is a harness on this baby. What will crazy, madcap thing will these zoos dream up next to do to elephants?

Hogle Zoo's new baby elephant was years in the making

She's a baby years in the making.

Veterinarians decided back in 2004 that Christie the elephant was ready to be a mother. But it took five years and millions of dollars in renovations to the zoo's elephant habitat to bring the Hogle Zoo's newest resident to life.

In a 20-minute labor that went by so fast it surprised her keepers, Christie gave birth to a 251-pound female calf on Monday afternoon. The as-of-yet unnamed calf is the first elephant born in Utah in more than 90 years and is the first African elephant born in the state -- but visitors will have to wait another six to eight weeks before she makes her public debut.



http://www.sltrib.com/ci_13037950?source=most_viewed

Hogle won't release video of elephant birth

But if that's the case, said animal rights activist Suzanne Roy, Hogle should be willing to release its video.

Roy, program director for the group In Defense of Animals, said she finds the practice of chaining elephants and keeping them separated from other members of their herd to be "cruel" and "barbaric." But, she said, "if they think it's an acceptable practice, they should release the video and let people judge for themselves."

Braithwaite, however, said that the zoo had decided not to release the footage because "it would be easy to misconstrue." She said that in order to understand the video in context, viewers would need to be given "scientific or veterinary explanation about what is going on."



http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13201625

Misconstrue? How could anyone misconstrue seeing an elephant in a harness and chains in labor?

See, Whitney, you're proving their point. It's TETHERING not CHAINING.

See how you "misconstrue" things? No wonder they're afraid to show the video.

There's a reason we call them mid -Wives. They are females present to assist in the birth process. Even we Humans know this is the best way.

Why the hell do we have men in control of elephant birthing: chaining the mothers, denying the supportive females access, and now 'tethering' the babies? Because they can pull the calf away from her Mother? Or, when something (usually) goes wrong, they can lift the calf up to the ceiling as if she were a falling aerialist?

Patriarchal control of matriarchal animals makes me sick. frustrated. furious.

Chaining an ele during the labor and delivery process is an unwritten admission that the conditions in which these animals live is anything but natural. Their births are unnatural, their lives are unnatural and their deaths are unnatural. The "natural" stress of labor and delivery is suppressed and artificially controlled, which causes even more stress.

I recall several instances of outrage and controversy when human prisoners were kept shackled during the birthing process, but no such outrage when we do it to four legged captives.

The zoos invest so much money in "getting" a baby that they don't want the mother to crush it, either accidentally or on purpose, which is no excuse whatsoever. All that money down the drain, and all the bad press that follows (i.e. Memphis last month).

Disgusting.

One thing about European zoos is that it's my understanding that some of them just let the elephants be during birth. I think it would be interesting to do a comparison of the infant mortality between the two approaches.

Rowan - this chilling document isn't exactly relevant to your post above, but it comes from Europe and I think it is worth reading (warning:- detailed descriptions and photos):
http://www.elephantcare.org/protodoc_files..._2005_09_05.pdf

Veterinary guidelines for reproduction-related management in captive female elephants - 5 September 2005 - W. Schaftenaar DVM (in Rotterdam) and T. Hildebrandt DVM (in Berlin).

Restraint chains, fixation points, ropes, pulling devices, calf harness and birth-chains are referred to on page 6, and the pulley and ring on page 13.
Also see guideline number 6 (in red) on page 8.

Finally, the calving process is a natural process (page 8).
In the wild, yes. But clearly not in zoos.....

Thanks Space. Do you have a link to that info?

As I wrote in most post, there are some (operative word "some") European zoos that allow the elephants to just be during delivery. I'll have to look up which ones but maybe if Oli is reading this, he will post...(oli....?)

Sorry Rowan, I was trying to do too many things at once.
Link now inserted.

QUOTE (Rowan Morrison @ Sep 2 2009, 08:37 PM)

Thanks Space.  Do you have a link to that info? As I wrote in most post, there are some (operative word "some") European zoos that allow the elephants to just be during delivery.  I'll have to look up which ones but maybe if Oli is reading this, he will post...(oli....?)