“Following last week’s death of a female infant elephant at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, the Save Wild Elephants Coalition (of which IDA is a member) renewed their call for an end to the captive breeding and capture of elephants from the wild for display in zoos. The young pachyderm who died was born to a female who was one of 11 elephants captured in 2003 from the African country of Swaziland, and was euthanized at the San Diego Zoo after becoming severely ill. The Coalition opposed the import of these elephants before they were taken from their homeland for display in the U.S., and charges that this tragic incident is just one more piece of evidence pointing to the failure of U.S. zoos’ elephant breeding and display programs.” – IDA eNews

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded $1,277,921 to support 25 new grants and supplement four existing grants for the conservation of elephants in 15 African countries in 2007, Director H. Dale Hall announced today. Partners’ contributions raised the total amount for elephant conservation to more than $4 million.” – U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

“Dondi has been performing with the Schacht family since she was brought to the United States from Thailand in 1975 and arrived on Nantucket via ferry on Sunday. She will make her debut public performance on the island Saturday.” – The Inquirer and Mirror

“Alaska’s only elephant, Maggie, arrived at her sunny new home in California Friday and was showing no ill effects from her 16 hour journey by truck and military transport plane, officials said. “She seems to love it here,” Kim Gardner, an official at the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), told Deutsche Presse- Agentur, dpa. “She really likes that sunshine.” – US World

“Across the United States, some zoos are bowing to pressure from animal rights groups and shipping their elephants to sanctuaries, while others build larger enclosures to ward off criticism about the animals’ living conditions.” – International Herald Tribune

“An international team headed by European scientists has been able to clarify the lineage of modern elephants, thanks to improved techniques for extracting DNA from a tooth, dated between 50 000 and 130 000 thousand years old. In a new paper in the open access journal PLoS, Michael Hofreiter from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and colleagues from Switzerland and the United States, described the sequencing of the complete mitochondrial genome of an extinct relative of living elephants, the mastodon (Mamut americanum), which diverged around 26 million years ago.” – European Research Headlines

“Russian authorities rejected an international petition for an elephant being held in cramped conditions in Kaliningrad Zoo to be moved to the U.S., insisting the animal was in good health.” – RIA Novosti

“As many as 16 Indian-born students, who settled in USA stayed a night in Dubbare elephant camp as part of the Bharath Yaatra programme.” – Newindpress.com

“A team of German, Swiss and U.S. scientists has announced the sequencing of the complete mitochondrial genome of the mastodon.” – ScienceDaily

“Under a proposal negotiated by elephant range states and passed by the conference, Namibia, South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe will be allowed to conduct a one-time sale of ivory stocks collected from elephants that died of natural causes and elephants taken by governments to protect villages. The United States has serious reservations about allowing Zimbabwe to be part of the sale because of doubts about its conservation record and commitment to combating poaching, but decided to support the agreement. Zimbabwe will have to demonstrate the effectiveness of its conservation program before it will be allowed by the CITES Standing Committee to proceed with the sale.” – All American Patriots

“The Department of the Interior has announced that the U.S. government will award 33 international grants totaling more than $1.7 million to support efforts to protect populations of Asian elephants, great apes, rhinoceroses, and tigers in 17 countries.” – About.com

“The US has become a major importer of illegal ivory, according to a report from the British organisation Care for the Wild International (CWI).” – BBC NEWS

“The United States will support strong conservation measures and international trade protections for tigers, elephants and whales at the upcoming 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 3 to 15.” – Environment News Service

“Writing in the June 2007 Scientific American one of the scientists who helped put forth a radical proposal to reintroduce historical megafauna — including camels, cheetah, elephants, and lions — revisits the scheme, reviewing its basic points and refuting some of the criticism the plan received from the general public and other conservation biologists. ” – Monga Bay

“For example, during the Vietnam War (1955 to 1975) Asian elephants were routinely strafed and bombed by U.S. aircraft to prevent the Vietcong using them for transport. Landmines continue to maim wildlife and livestock, in addition to people, to this day.” – COSMOS magazine

?Ringling has been fined tens of thousands of dollars by the U.S.D.A. [United States Department of Agriculture] and is responsible for the deaths of at least 24 elephants since 1992,? he said. ?They cannot be trusted to take care of animals properly. In fact, the Bronx Zoo plans to retire its elephants to a sanctuary because they can?t adequately meet the needs of their elephants. Who on earth believes that Madison Square Garden is a suitable environment for wild animals?? – The Villager

And “elephants are considered an endangered species and as such should not be used by U.S. military personnel. … Elephants are not the easygoing, kind, loving creatures that people believe them to be. They are, of course, not evil either.” – USNews.com

“The sale of 60 tons (66 U.S. tons) of elephant ivory ? normally banned under international conservation rules ? could be approved at a United Nations-sponsored meeting next week.” – International Herald Tribune