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Showing posts with label Asian elephant breeding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asian elephant breeding. Show all posts
Tuesday, 10 April 2018
Wild elephant controlled after entering SW China city
KUNMING, April 9 (Xinhua) -- A wild Asian elephant was transported to a breeding and rescue center in southwest China's Yunnan Province Monday after being anaesthetized near a city park.
This was the first anaesthetization of a healthy adult Asian elephant in China.
The elephant entered Simao district of Pu'er City Saturday night, strolling on the city streets, and did some damage before leaving on Sunday morning. It entered the district again later, wandering in a suburban park and even attempting to enter nearby houses.
Forestry workers blocked roads and evacuated people before anaesthetizing the elephant and taking it to the China Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center in Xishuangbanna.
Bao Mingwei, a vet with the center, said the elephant had a medical checkup upon arriving Monday morning and was in good health.
At 2.2 meters high, the elephant weighs more than 2 tonnes and is between 12 to 15 years old, Bao said.
The center will check its health and temperament before releasing it back to the forest, he said.
Chen Mingyong, head of the Asian elephant research center at Yunnan University, said the intrusion had little to do with food and was more like aimless wandering.
Forest police warned the public to keep a safe distance from the wild elephants as they can cause a lot of damage if they get riled.
Asian elephants are under first-class national protection. China has about 300 of them, mostly in Yunnan, a significant increase from around 170 in the 1990s.
Please credit and share this article with others using this link:
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-04/10/c_137098605.htm
Friday, 16 March 2018
Chinese company signs agreement to build elephant protection center in Laos
China's Yunnan Provincial Investment Holding Group has signed an
agreement with the government of northern Lao Sayabuly Province to build
the Asian Elephant Species Protection, Breeding and Rescue Center.
The agreement was signed on Saturday on the sidelines of the International Elephants Festival and
Visit Laos Year 2018 in Sayabuly province.
The deal aims to protect, breed, rescue and provide assistance to popularize the endangered animals particularly Asian elephants and to promote tourism in the province.
Yunnan Provincial Investment Holding Group was welcomed by the Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit to invest in the elephant protection center in Laos. He also expected more investment in Lao infrastructure and other sectors, said a press release issued by the Chinese company.
The local government will give strong support to the project which is expected to promote local tourism. The development of the industry may make Sayabuly a landmark tourism city for Chinese visitors, said the Lao president.
Please credit and share this article with others using this link:
http://www.ecns.cn/2018/02-18/292925.shtml
The agreement was signed on Saturday on the sidelines of the International Elephants Festival and
Visit Laos Year 2018 in Sayabuly province.
The deal aims to protect, breed, rescue and provide assistance to popularize the endangered animals particularly Asian elephants and to promote tourism in the province.
Yunnan Provincial Investment Holding Group was welcomed by the Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit to invest in the elephant protection center in Laos. He also expected more investment in Lao infrastructure and other sectors, said a press release issued by the Chinese company.
The local government will give strong support to the project which is expected to promote local tourism. The development of the industry may make Sayabuly a landmark tourism city for Chinese visitors, said the Lao president.
Please credit and share this article with others using this link:
http://www.ecns.cn/2018/02-18/292925.shtml
Saturday, 2 September 2017
Chinese Firm to Build US $40 Million Elephant Conservation, Breeding Center in Laos
A Chinese state-owned enterprise said on Saturday that it will build a U.S. $40 million elephant conservation and breeding center in northwestern Laos’ Sayaboury province and develop it into a for-profit tourist attraction by the end of the year.
At a celebration of the first World Elephant Day in the province on Aug. 12, the Sino-Lao Tourism Investment and Development Company Ltd., announced its plans to build the center in Sayaboury city for a species that has become increasingly scarce in the Southeast Asian country.
Company manager Mu Yian Yu told attendees through an interpreter that the company will invest $40 million in building the conservation center during the upcoming dry weather season which begins after October.
“The Sino-Lao Tourism Investment and Development Company will develop the center this year,” he said, adding that provincial officials have granted the firm a 50-year land concession for the center.
“In two years we will have boats, hot air balloons, and elephant shows,” he said.
A Sayaboury official, who requested anonymity, said the Chinese firm is building the elephant center as a tourist attraction.
“They are developing a tourist attraction in Sayaboury about two kilometers (1.2 miles) from here,” he said.
“It will be a big business,” he said. “The Chinese investor has already done some publicity. It’s all business nowadays. They are doing it for profit. Now they are spending U.S. $900 to feed a single elephant each month.”
The company rented about 50 elephants from Sayaboury residents for an event that attracted about 500 people to mark World Elephant Day, which was established on Aug. 12, 2012, to call attention to the plight of Asian and African elephants at risk because of illegal poaching, habitat loss, human-elephant conflict, and mistreatment in captivity.
“Every year we will mark this day and organize some activities to call on people to protect elephants and their habitat,” Mu Yian Yu said at the ceremony.
A Sayaboury resident who attended the event said he believes the Chinese are building the center in order to protect elephants in Laos and not to export them back home.
“The Chinese are doing business in our country,” said the Sayaboury resident who declined to be named. “Their purpose is to convince people to protect the elephants. These are all Lao elephants. I believe they will not sell these animals to China. They have a conservation center that can train them.”
Officials of Sayaboury province and the Chinese company estimate that there are about 850 elephants in Laos, half of which are domesticated elephants. In Sayaboury province alone, there are 250 domesticated elephants and 150 wild ones.
Not to everyone’s liking
Not everyone is a fan of wildlife conservations centers like the one the Chinese will build in Laos.
Edwin Wiek, founder of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, told RFA’s Lao Service that wildlife conservation efforts need to be backed by law enforcement to be effective at increasing animal populations.
“I never agree with the breeding programs for domestic elephants,” he said. “For instance, in Thailand … the population of elephants always increases because of real conservation [efforts] and enforcement of the law.”
Though Laos does have such a law, poachers continue to kill elephants for their tusks and hides, which they sell illegally, mainly to China.
“We have the law, but we do not implement it,” he said “It is not because of the law but the problem is that it is not enforced.”
“Lao is now considered a global market for wildlife,” he said, adding that the trafficking of wildlife has been increasing in the country.
Wiek said if there is no further deforestation and elephant hunting in Southeast Asia, future elephant populations might increase because of areas along the Thailand-Myanmar border where elephants can roam freely and breed naturally.
“To talk about elephant conservation, we must make laws to protect against deforestation and the illegal ivory trade,” he said.
Furthermore, Wiek questioned the motives behind centers that breed elephants in captivity.
“In fact someone may think that breeding elephants to have many calves is called conservation. That does not increase the number of elephants in the forest, but rather it is only breeding for business.”
Laos became a member of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a multilateral treaty protecting endangered plants and animals, in May 2004. The convention banned the ivory trade in 1989.
Though deforestation, particularly from illegal logging, is the main reason for the declining elephant population in Laos, pachyderms are also hunted and killed by poachers who smuggle their ivory tusks and hides outside the country.
Lao officials are known for the lax implementation and enforcement of laws prohibiting illegal logging and the smuggling of illegal wildlife, and border officials can easily be bribed to look the other way, experts say.
Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/chinese-firm-to-build-us-40-million-elephant-conservation-breeding-center-in-laos-08142017163059.html
At a celebration of the first World Elephant Day in the province on Aug. 12, the Sino-Lao Tourism Investment and Development Company Ltd., announced its plans to build the center in Sayaboury city for a species that has become increasingly scarce in the Southeast Asian country.
Company manager Mu Yian Yu told attendees through an interpreter that the company will invest $40 million in building the conservation center during the upcoming dry weather season which begins after October.
“The Sino-Lao Tourism Investment and Development Company will develop the center this year,” he said, adding that provincial officials have granted the firm a 50-year land concession for the center.
“In two years we will have boats, hot air balloons, and elephant shows,” he said.
A Sayaboury official, who requested anonymity, said the Chinese firm is building the elephant center as a tourist attraction.
“They are developing a tourist attraction in Sayaboury about two kilometers (1.2 miles) from here,” he said.
“It will be a big business,” he said. “The Chinese investor has already done some publicity. It’s all business nowadays. They are doing it for profit. Now they are spending U.S. $900 to feed a single elephant each month.”
The company rented about 50 elephants from Sayaboury residents for an event that attracted about 500 people to mark World Elephant Day, which was established on Aug. 12, 2012, to call attention to the plight of Asian and African elephants at risk because of illegal poaching, habitat loss, human-elephant conflict, and mistreatment in captivity.
“Every year we will mark this day and organize some activities to call on people to protect elephants and their habitat,” Mu Yian Yu said at the ceremony.
A Sayaboury resident who attended the event said he believes the Chinese are building the center in order to protect elephants in Laos and not to export them back home.
“The Chinese are doing business in our country,” said the Sayaboury resident who declined to be named. “Their purpose is to convince people to protect the elephants. These are all Lao elephants. I believe they will not sell these animals to China. They have a conservation center that can train them.”
Officials of Sayaboury province and the Chinese company estimate that there are about 850 elephants in Laos, half of which are domesticated elephants. In Sayaboury province alone, there are 250 domesticated elephants and 150 wild ones.
Not to everyone’s liking
Not everyone is a fan of wildlife conservations centers like the one the Chinese will build in Laos.
Edwin Wiek, founder of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, told RFA’s Lao Service that wildlife conservation efforts need to be backed by law enforcement to be effective at increasing animal populations.
“I never agree with the breeding programs for domestic elephants,” he said. “For instance, in Thailand … the population of elephants always increases because of real conservation [efforts] and enforcement of the law.”
Though Laos does have such a law, poachers continue to kill elephants for their tusks and hides, which they sell illegally, mainly to China.
“We have the law, but we do not implement it,” he said “It is not because of the law but the problem is that it is not enforced.”
“Lao is now considered a global market for wildlife,” he said, adding that the trafficking of wildlife has been increasing in the country.
Wiek said if there is no further deforestation and elephant hunting in Southeast Asia, future elephant populations might increase because of areas along the Thailand-Myanmar border where elephants can roam freely and breed naturally.
“To talk about elephant conservation, we must make laws to protect against deforestation and the illegal ivory trade,” he said.
Furthermore, Wiek questioned the motives behind centers that breed elephants in captivity.
“In fact someone may think that breeding elephants to have many calves is called conservation. That does not increase the number of elephants in the forest, but rather it is only breeding for business.”
Laos became a member of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a multilateral treaty protecting endangered plants and animals, in May 2004. The convention banned the ivory trade in 1989.
Though deforestation, particularly from illegal logging, is the main reason for the declining elephant population in Laos, pachyderms are also hunted and killed by poachers who smuggle their ivory tusks and hides outside the country.
Lao officials are known for the lax implementation and enforcement of laws prohibiting illegal logging and the smuggling of illegal wildlife, and border officials can easily be bribed to look the other way, experts say.
Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/chinese-firm-to-build-us-40-million-elephant-conservation-breeding-center-in-laos-08142017163059.html
Wednesday, 26 April 2017
First successful artificial mating in endangered Asian elephants in China
Chinese researchers have for the first time used artificial breeding techniques to breed a baby Asian elephant.
The Asian elephant is a first-class national protected animal that inhabits Southwest China's Yunnan Province, where the cub was delivered.
A female elephant Weilai delivered the healthy 106-centimeter male cub on March 16 after 22 months' pregnancy, news portal chinanews.com reported Wednesday.
The birth was engineered by the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.
The cub is reported to be in stable health.
“Having delivered a cub in 2010 in natural breeding, Weilai never got pregnant again although she went into heat several times,” Bao Mingwei, a veterinary from the center was qouted as saying by chinanews.com.
Bao said they detected Weilai's hormone level and chose the best timing for her to mate with a male elephant Pailun in 2015.
Over the past ten years, employees from the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center have successfully bred three Asian elephants through natural mating. The birth of this cub has opened a new era in breeding Asian elephants with the assistance of new technologies.
“We look forward to more artificially-aided breeding Asian elephant cubs with the assistance of the cutting-edge technologies,” Bao said.
According to Bao, there are about 300 wild elephants inhabiting Xishuangbanna, Puer and Lincang in Yunnan.
Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://english.china.com/news/china/54/20170324/921000.html
The Asian elephant is a first-class national protected animal that inhabits Southwest China's Yunnan Province, where the cub was delivered.
A female elephant Weilai delivered the healthy 106-centimeter male cub on March 16 after 22 months' pregnancy, news portal chinanews.com reported Wednesday.
The birth was engineered by the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.
The cub is reported to be in stable health.
“Having delivered a cub in 2010 in natural breeding, Weilai never got pregnant again although she went into heat several times,” Bao Mingwei, a veterinary from the center was qouted as saying by chinanews.com.
Bao said they detected Weilai's hormone level and chose the best timing for her to mate with a male elephant Pailun in 2015.
Over the past ten years, employees from the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center have successfully bred three Asian elephants through natural mating. The birth of this cub has opened a new era in breeding Asian elephants with the assistance of new technologies.
“We look forward to more artificially-aided breeding Asian elephant cubs with the assistance of the cutting-edge technologies,” Bao said.
According to Bao, there are about 300 wild elephants inhabiting Xishuangbanna, Puer and Lincang in Yunnan.
Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://english.china.com/news/china/54/20170324/921000.html
Thursday, 30 March 2017
First successful artificial mating in endangered Asian elephants in China
Chinese researchers have for the first time used artificial breeding techniques to breed a baby Asian elephant.
The Asian elephant is a first-class national protected animal that inhabits Southwest China's Yunnan Province, where the cub was delivered.
A female elephant Weilai delivered the healthy 106-centimeter male cub on March 16 after 22 months' pregnancy, news portal chinanews.com reported Wednesday.
The birth was engineered by the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.
The cub is reported to be in stable health.
"Having delivered a cub in 2010 in natural breeding, Weilai never got pregnant again although she went into heat several times," Bao Mingwei, a veterinary from the center was qouted as saying by chinanews.com.
Bao said they detected Weilai's hormone level and chose the best timing for her to mate with a male elephant Pailun in 2015.
Over the past ten years, employees from the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center have successfully bred three Asian elephants through natural mating. The birth of this cub has opened a new era in breeding Asian elephants with the assistance of new technologies.
"We look forward to more artificially-aided breeding Asian elephant cubs with the assistance of the cutting-edge technologies," Bao said.
According to Bao, there are about 300 wild elephants inhabiting Xishuangbanna, Puer and Lincang in Yunnan.
The Asian elephant is a first-class national protected animal that inhabits Southwest China's Yunnan Province, where the cub was delivered.
A female elephant Weilai delivered the healthy 106-centimeter male cub on March 16 after 22 months' pregnancy, news portal chinanews.com reported Wednesday.
The birth was engineered by the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.
The cub is reported to be in stable health.
"Having delivered a cub in 2010 in natural breeding, Weilai never got pregnant again although she went into heat several times," Bao Mingwei, a veterinary from the center was qouted as saying by chinanews.com.
Bao said they detected Weilai's hormone level and chose the best timing for her to mate with a male elephant Pailun in 2015.
Over the past ten years, employees from the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center have successfully bred three Asian elephants through natural mating. The birth of this cub has opened a new era in breeding Asian elephants with the assistance of new technologies.
"We look forward to more artificially-aided breeding Asian elephant cubs with the assistance of the cutting-edge technologies," Bao said.
According to Bao, there are about 300 wild elephants inhabiting Xishuangbanna, Puer and Lincang in Yunnan.
Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1039231.shtml
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