1999-11-30 - Springfield, Missouri, United States. AP
In an important milestone for an endangered species, an Asian elephant has given birth through artificial insemination. Weighing in at 378 pounds, Haji was born Sunday at Dickerson Park Zoo. It was the world's first birth through artificial insemination of an Asian elephant, which are estimated to number only35,000 worldwide.
1999-07-24 - Singapore, Singapore. AP Online
The first elephant born in Singapore's zoo died suddenly 15 months after it miraculously survived breaking its leg and undergoing surgery, the zoo said Saturday. Zookeepers are baffled as to what caused the death. A post-mortem should give results next week, said Priscilla Yim-Stacey, spokesman for the Singapore Zoological Gardens. Sri Utama, which means First Lady in Tamil, was one of the worlds endangered Asian elephants, often used as beasts of labor. There are fewer than 30,000 in the wild.
1999-06-01 - Berlin, Germany. Burkhardt S, Hentschke J, Weiler H, Ehlers B, Ochs A, Walter J, Wittstatt U, Goltenboth R. Institut fur Lebensmittel, Arzneimittel und Tierseuchen
This is a report on the case of 'KIBA', an eleven year old male elephant at the Zoological Garden Berlin, infected with the endotheliotropic elephants herpesvirus. 'KIBA' was born at the Zoo in Houston, Texas, and raised within his herd. In June 1998 he already serviced three females of his new herd several times. In August 1998 he died after passing a peracute progression of the disease after residenting in Berlin for only 9 months.
1999-05-16 - Timmins, Canada. Zoo-Check, Canada
On May 14, 1999, Shayne Gressett, a 23 year old Leonardo Circus employee was fatally injured by Betty - a 35 year old female Asian elephant - in the area of the MacIntyre Arena in Timmins, Ontario. The incident occured in the rear parking lot at 5:40 pm. between shows. Gressett, a native of Texas, died from injuries sustained when Betty lifted her leg and kicked him in the head. The Timmins Police Service and the Ontario Ministry of Labour are now investigating.
1999-05-05 - Lucknow, India.
Despite the temptations of her favorite foods -- bananas, sugarcane and grass -- and the efforts of modern veterinary science, Damini, a 72-year-old elephant, died last Wednesday of a broken heart. After being confiscated from owners who were illegally transporting her, Damini was brought to the Prince of Wales Zoo in Lucknow, India, last year. She was alone for five months until September, when a pregnant younger elephant named Champakali joined her.
1999-04-03 - Webb city, United States. Robin Rosenthal and Bill Yahraus, The Pennsylvania Gazette
Before we met her, Patty was described to us as the son Tarzan never had. Not only is she a well-respected big-cat and elephant trainer, but she can drive a semi, weld, do basic truck repair and execute a neat split between the heads of two lumbering beasts. She is raising her two boys alone after the death of her husband in a Ringling train derailment just a couple of years earlier. She has an edge you could cut meat with. When I point my microphone down into a first-day conversation between he...
1999-03-24 - Honolulu, United States.
What ever happened to the body of Tyke, the 21-year-old female circus elephant whose rampage through Kakaako in 1994 was finally stopped by police gunfire? How was the body disposed? -When Tyke died, the city parks department moved the body to the animal quarantine station at Halawa, where state personnel did an animal autopsy, said city spokeswoman Carol Costa.
1999-02-18 - Washington, United States. Johns Hopkins, Baltimore and National Zoo
Researchers at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., have discovered the cause of death of nearly a dozen young North American zoo elephants -- fatal hemorrhaging from a previously unknown form of herpesvirus that apparently jumped from African elephants to the Asian species.
1999-02-10 - Geneva, Switzerland. Richard Wilson,BBC
Game hunters will pay thousands of dollars to kill an elephant The 10-year old ivory ban has been lifted. The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has agreed to a one-off sale of nearly 60 tonnes of stockpiled ivory. The money raised by the sale will pay for conservation programmes in Africa. The decision was made after pressure from three southern African members at a meeting in Geneva.
1999-01-23 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Wimalaratne O, Kodikara DS.Department of Rabies Diagnosis and Research, Medical Research Institute
Wimalaratne O, Kodikara DS.
1999-01-22 - Zhengzhou, China.
The central Chinese city of Zhengzhou is mourning the death of a much-loved elephant, called Luwen, at the local zoo. The BBC's Carrie Gracie in Beijing: "Daily health bulletins made top news on local television" Thirty keepers and vets from across China struggled to save her, but the 25-year-old Burmese elephant died of stomach problems after lying on her side for a month.
1999-01-19 - Friedrichsfelde, Berlin, Germany.
A tiny, 4-day-old elephant was introduced to an entirely different species at Berlin's Friedrichsfelde Zoo on Tuesday: a herd of television and still cameras accompanied by a pack of journalists. The infant female African elephant, one of only seven born in captivity in Germany, appeared a little shaky on her legs as she was presented to the media.