Look for love
Elephants are packing their trunks, traveling to ...
Look for love: Elephants are packing their trunks, traveling to ...

By Carrie Coppernoll

Published: April 6, 2008

ASHA and Chandra don't know what they're in for. To the Asian elephant sisters at the Oklahoma City Zoo, it's just more apples.

The two have been training for weeks, standing still as zookeepers examine their insides in exchange for carrots and apples and salad dressing.

They don't know the examiners are checking their reproductive viability. They don't know they're betrothed to an elephant 90 miles away and that the zoo world is watching the courtship. They don't know how important their impending motherhood is or why their genes are key to the survival of Asian elephants in America.

All they know, probably, is that they're getting more apples.

Asha and Chandra will leave the zoo in June to breed with the male Sneezy at the Tulsa Zoo. Their return hinges on two timelines: conception and construction. If they breed quickly, the females could be back within two years and be the first elephants to give birth at the Oklahoma City Zoo.

But the date of their return depends on whether their new habitat can be finished while they're away. Their new home will be in the $16 million Asia exhibit, a project still in the design phase. The last large-scale project at the Oklahoma City Zoo — Oklahoma Trails — opened three years behind schedule. Zoo officials promise that won't be the case for the Asia project and Asha and Chandra will be home soon.

The decision to breed Asha and Chandra with Sneezy came from the experts who manage the Elephant Species Survival Plan, the nationwide breeding plan that monitors genetics and the elephant population. The effort is led by Mike Keele, deputy director of the Oregon Zoo.

"The long-term goal,” he said, "is for us to develop a sustainable population of Asian elephants.”

Choosing which elephants to breed to sustain the population is based on a set of rankings. Animals are ranked by how well represented their genetics are in the national gene pool, Keele said. Asha, Chandra and Sneezy are ranked highly because they have no living offspring, which means they are recommended for breeding.

Another factor in Asha and Chandra's favor is their age.

Most captive elephants in the United States were imported during the 1950s and '60s, Keele said. Asha, 13, and Chandra, 11, are two of the few young females in the country. The average age of a female Asian elephant in captivity is 36, several years beyond ideal breeding age, according to the Species Survival Plan Studbook. Young elephants are in short supply, and the animals aren't imported from the wild like they were in years past, Keele said.

Brian Aucone, interim director at the Oklahoma City Zoo, said all those factors reinforce the idea that the pairing of Asha and Chandra with Sneezy is a vital match. And a convenient one.

"Ours are very valuable females,” he said, "and it works out great. It's a fellow zoo here in the state. You know, they're only 90 miles away, so it's worked out great that we've had this opportunity to put them together.”

Asha and Chandra are being moved to Tulsa for breeding because Oklahoma City's elephant yard can fit only two elephants, Aucone said, and there isn't space to keep the elephants separated during their introduction.

Tulsa zookeepers will visit the elephants in the coming weeks, Aucone said. They'll learn how the Oklahoma City keepers care for the animals, and the elephants will become familiar and comfortable with their future handlers. Once they are in Tulsa, Oklahoma City keepers will visit periodically.

The elephants will be moved in a modified tractor-trailer by a man who specializes in animal transport, Aucone said.

"Elephants are extremely strong,” Aucone said. "You couldn't put them in the back of a yellow freight truck. They could probably just walk straight out the side without any effort.”

Once in Tulsa, Asha and Chandra will be quarantined in a reserve yard for at least 30 days, said Karen Dunn, large mammal curator at the Tulsa Zoo. The elephants will be introduced to the two Tulsa females, who are too old to reproduce. The plan calls for the four females to live together, so it is important they become comfortable with one another.

This introduction, called a "howdy” in the zoo world, could take up to six months, Aucone said.

The timing of Asha and Chandra's introduction to Sneezy will depend on the Oklahoma City females' menstruation cycles. If they are near a conception phase, they may be introduced to Sneezy immediately, instead of the Tulsa females. An earlier introduction to Sneezy could mean an earlier start in the breeding process.

How well Asha, Chandra and Sneezy get along could affect the breeding timeline. Aucone said Sneezy has a reputation as a polite mate.

"Sneezy's kind of a gentleman. He tries to court them. He doesn't try to force the issue.”

Aside from Sneezy's inclinations, breeding will depend on Asha and Chandra's timing. The elephants have two cycles annually, but they're only open to conception during one of them. Those peak cycles are about four months apart. During that peak time, the elephants are only able to conceive during a window of about 12 hours. If the females don't conceive during that window of opportunity, they'll have to wait another four months. Contractors would then have another four months to finish the exhibit in Oklahoma City.

The Tulsa Zoo will pay for the food and care while the Oklahoma City elephants are there, Dunn said. The Oklahoma City Zoo will pay for the transport. The money Oklahoma City normally spends on elephants will be absorbed into the zoo general budget for the next few years, Aucone said.

When they return, Asha and Chandra will be the centerpiece of a $16 million project scheduled to open in spring 2011. The elephant section is the top construction priority, Aucone said.

"We may not get Asia complete (on time),” Aucone said, "but we can get (the elephant) part complete in a very timely manner and get the elephants back here.”

Construction must be finished before the elephants are about 18 months through their 22-month pregnancies, which could be as early as January 2010, he said.

Dunn said transporting elephants that are more than 18 months pregnant is dangerous.

"Worst case scenario: they get bred and they have (babies) here,” she said. "We'll deal with it.”

If that's the case, Asha and Chandra will stay in Tulsa until the calves are about a year old, probably some time in 2011 at the earliest.

Aucone said construction will be on time; the delays at the Oklahoma Trails exhibit won't be repeated. The $10 million Oklahoma Trails timeline wasn't realistic, Aucone said.

"It was a very challenging site,” he said.

"I don't think the contractor realized the extent to which it was going to be a challenge to try and work in there.”

This time, Aucone said, the exhibit area is flat and an experienced architect has been hired for the job.

"We're going to improve. You learn something every time you do something,” Aucone said.

"When this facility opens, it's going to be the best facility in the United States.”

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