Born: 1976 in Krüger National Park in South Africa Gender: female Since 1984 in the zoo Basel Distinguishing features: clear horizontal wrinkles on her forehead, short tusks. Heri was born in Krüger National Park in South Africa ...
Zoo born elephants
Between 1900 and 2017, 20 elephant births took place in Switzerland: 1963 1.0 Sahib-Friodolin at Circus KNIE (Ceylon/Siam) 1965 0.1 Madura at Circus KNIE (Java/Siam) 1966 0.1 Ota at Zoo Basel (Idunda/Omari) 1984 0.1 Komali ...
Teeth, second dentition, Tusks
What is special about elephant teeth? In contrast to humans, elephants are lucky enough to undergo further dentition 6 times. Teeth are not, however, exchanged from the bottom to the top (vertically), as in ...
Pregnancy of elephants
How long does an elephant cow’s menstrual cycle last? An elephant cow’s oestrogen cycle lasts 3-4 months. Thus an elephant cow is only ready to be covered by the bull about 3 to 4 ...
Musth of the elephant bulls
What does the word “musth” mean? An essential part of the problems of the keeping of elephant bulls is the so-called musth. Musth is a word of Persian origin and is translated in the ...
Keeping elephants
How are elephants kept? Nowadays, three different kinds of elephant keeping are used in zoos: “Free Contact”, “Protected Contact” and “Offhand Management”. However, in circuses, elephants are being shown in the ring. Working with ...
Ankus, Elephant Hook and Whip
What is an elephant hook? The ankus or elephant hook, in the colloquial language of the elephant keepers briefly named hooks, is an very old aid in handling elephants by humans in a direct ...
European Elephant Group
Dear elephant lovers In 1993, 1997, 1999, 2001, as well as in 2002, the European Elephant Group published in cooperation with the association ELEFANTEN-SCHUTZ EUROPA e.V. [PROTECTION OF ELEPHANTS EUROPE, registered association] altogether 5 ...
Differences between African and Asian Elephant
How do different types of elephants differ? The difference between the African and the Asian elephants, looking closer, is remarkable . Actually they resemble each other only from a distance by their outward appearance. ...
Communication between the elephants
How do elephants communicate? Since elephants are not “loners”, but live in a herds, they need several possibilities of communicating with each other. The trunk, the ears, the tail, body language and naturally also ...