Extraordinary: three pregnant African elephants in Safaripark Beekse Bergen

Beekse Bergen is gearing up for the births of three African elephant calves. This is because the elephant Punda and her two daughters Pina-Nessi and Bongi are pregnant. The park announced this happy news during a special unveiling in the new Elephant Valley, which is still under construction. With this stay, the elephants in Beekse Bergen will gain an additional 5000 square meters.

The calves are expected in three months, between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024."It is very special that as many as three elephants are pregnant in our park," says head of animal care Yvonne Vogels. "Every year an average of two to six African elephants are born in European zoos. It also happens that in one year no African elephants are born." At Beekse Bergen, an African elephant was born once before: Punda gave birth to cow Madiba in 2016.

Elephants are pregnant for an average of 22 months with a margin of several weeks. "We cannot determine an exact delivery date. What we do know is that the elephants are mated in three months and the young are born in short succession. So it will be really exciting for us as well!" says Vogels.

Impressed
The father of these three future calves is Yambo. This eighteen-year-old bull came to Beekse Bergen in 2021 from an animal park in Cabárceno, Spain. "Yambo felt right at home in Beekse Bergen and the ladies were also immediately very impressed by this gentle giant. This was mutual, as he too was interested in the three cows. Several matings took place with a lot of fuss from the rest of the family," said an enthusiastic Vogels.

The elephant's cycle is measured through blood and urine tests and therefore caregivers know when ovulation occurs. Birds: "We saw that mating occurred at exactly the right time and then we had to wait patiently for the results of the blood tests. Fortunately, the results showed that ovulation no longer occurred. As a result, we can say with certainty that all three are pregnant!"

European management program
The African elephant lives south of the Sahara Desert in East and South Africa and is threatened with extinction in the wild. One of the biggest threats is still poaching. For example, some twenty thousand elephants are killed each year just for the valuable ivory tusks. In addition, the habitat is under pressure from agricultural land development, and climate change is also causing the population to decline.

To ensure a healthy reserve population, there is a management program within European zoos. "Yambo came to our park for the management program so we are very happy to contribute to this with the birth of the young elephants," says Vogels.

Stichting Wildlife
Beekse Bergen supports Stichting Wildlife and thus the Elephants and Bees Project. In addition to poaching, human-animal conflicts are a major threat. The conflicts arise because the elephants are on fixed routes, ascending farmland and thus trampling crops.

The Elephants and Bees Project has come up with an innovative solution to this: crops are protected by bee colonies. Elephants are afraid of bees, probably because of the danger that the bees might fly into their trunks and sting them there. By hanging beehives on wires around farmland, the crops are protected. In fact, as soon as an elephant runs into a wire, the hives move and the bees fly out. The animals are startled by the buzzing and flee from this.

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