AS YOU MIGHT WELL IMAGINE, artificially inseminating an elephant is a touchy business. But, says Janine Brown, artificial insemination (AI) is an important tool, because natural reproduction can be difficult for captive elephants. Bulls are dangerous to keep, there aren’t many of them around, and transporting the females to where the bulls are is both stressful and expensive.
Brown, who completed two degrees in animal science (’80 M.S., ’84 Ph.D.) at Washington State University, is the senior endocrinologist at the Smithsonian Institution National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. There, in late February 2000, she coordinated the successful artificial insemination (AI) of Shanthi, a 24-year-old … » More …
Rose-Tu warily eyes the stranger shuffling toward her. He is moving slowly and grasping the arm of a human she sees almost daily. As Matthew Maberry (D.V.M. ’47) plants his cane inside the Oregon Zoo’s elephant compound, he lifts his eyes and returns the look.
“The only trouble with elephants,” says Maberry, the Portland zoo’s first staff veterinarian, “is you can fall in love with them.”
Maberry—”Doc” to some—is eager to get started. Now up close to Rose-Tu, the 90-year-old presses an instrument against the elephant’s wrinkled belly. Inside, the first Asian elephant baby to be born at the zoo since 1994 is finishing … » More …
The wait is over.
Shanthi, a 25-year old Asian elephant (Washington State Magazine, Nov. 2001), delivered a 325-pound male calf November 25, 2001 at the National Zoo in Washington, DC.
Janine Brown (’80 M.S., ’84 Ph.D. Animal Sci.) coordinated the artificial insemination of Shanthi 21 months earlier. A former graduate student of Jerry Reeves, professor of animal science at Washington State University, she is the senior endocrinologist at the Smithsonian Institution National Zoological Park.
Shanthi was given to the zoo in 1976 by the people of Sri Lanka, where she was orphaned as a baby. She delivered her first calf, Kumari, at the zoo in … » More …