Category — Elephant Research

“Australian researchers have made the rare discovery of an almost complete prehistoric elephant skeleton, thought to be about 200-thousand years old.” – ABC Radio Australia

3 boys in Michigan found a large bone on a farm in Michigan. The bone belongs to a prehistoric Mammoth.

Herald Palladium

A four part series, Animal Autopsy, will feature the dissections of an elephant, giraffe, crocodile and whale. Sounds gruesome to me.

Telegraph

The San Diego is planning on studying the movement of African elephants over a 50,000 square mile area that includes Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Los Angeles Times

An elephant, in the Kruger National Park in South Africa, mourns his deceased friend – he tries to keep vultures and hyenas away and even tries to lift the carcass.

News24

Researchers are learning that when female elephants make mating calls that the vibrations can be felt in the male’s feet and trunks.

Science Daily

Researchers are attempting to reproduce the rumbling sound made by a female in heat in order to stop rampaging males and keep them from being killed.

BBC NEWS

Opal, a formally abused traveling circus elephant, is pregnant for the first time via artificial insemination.

EADT

Microchips are being installed in elephants at the Jim Corbett National Park in India. Each chip will have an ID number, which will allow researchers to track them.

The Times of India

An illegal coffee plantation has been built within the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in Indonesia, which is causing conflict between humans and elephants. To reduce the number of elephant deaths, a GPS collar has been devised for elephants. By knowing the elephant’s location, humans can be warned when the elephants are entering their area and prepare for them without having to resort to killing them.

BBC NEWS

“The researchers captured the moment a mother knocked her older calf off his feet after he began misbehaving after the birth of a younger sibling. ” – Telegraph

“In what could be an important step toward stabilizing the world’s population of endangered Asian elephants, German researchers say they’ve hit on a way to freeze elephant sperm without destroying its viability.” Scientific American

“Elephants do not have the greatest eyesight in the animal kingdom, but they never forget a face. Carol Buckley at The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn., for instance, reports that in 1999 resident elephant Jenny became anxious and could hardly be contained when introduced to newcomer Shirley, an Asian elephant.” – Scientific American

An amazing article about elephant’s memories.

“Over the years WWF in collaboration with the North Carolina Zoo has been deploying satellite collars on elephants in the Southeast and other parts of Cameroon. The collars provide information via satellite on the movement pattern of elephants essential for the conservation of this charismatic mega vertebrate.” – AfricaNews

Scientists believe they could bring mammoths back to life. They now have the complete genetic make-up and think they could resurrect the species by implanting an egg in an elephant. Do you think this should be done? What would we do with the extinct creature? Wouldn’t it be lonely?

“Stephan Schuster, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and the project co-leader at Pennsylvania State university, said the discovery could give clues to why the mammoth became extinct while elephants survived. He said: “By deciphering this genome we could, in theory, generate data that one day may help other researchers to bring the woolly mammoth back to life by inserting the uniquely mammoth DNA sequences into the genome of the modern-day elephant. “

(via)Independent.ie

photo credit: Travis S.

“Scientists are talking for the first time about the old idea of resurrecting extinct species as if this staple of science fiction is a realistic possibility, saying that a living mammoth could perhaps be regenerated for as little as $10 million.” – NYTimes.com

“Dr. Joyce Poole-who has lived with elephants in Africa’s savannah for more than 27 years-described her experiences to more than 100 people Saturday at ARK 2000, the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary. She recounted her time spent working on the Amboseli Elephant Research Project at Amboseli National Park in Kenya, a 57-square-mile park near Mount Kilimanjaro. Her work there is part of one of the longest-running research projects concentrating on wild elephants.” – Calaveras Enterprise

“Kenya’s world famous Amboseli Elephant researchers led by Nairobi based Elephant conservationist Dr. Joyce Poole of 26 years elephant experience will team up with local expertise like Manori Gunawardena to start a long standing study of Asian Elephants along the lines of the African project focusing on the Minneriya-kaudulla Wewa elephant population.” – Asian Tribune