The Reid Park Zoo will no longer attempt to breed its 26-year-old African elephant Shaba.
The zoo announced Wednesday, that the decision was made last week despite the fact that Shaba is a healthy elephant of breeding age. The decision was based on new research that older first-time elephant mothers have a lower success rate and a greater chance for complications, said zoo administrator Susan Basford.
"As elephants get older, pregnancies certainly become more problematic," Basford said, noting that although the zoo staff has more than 100 years of experience caring for elephants, no one on staff has experience with an elephant pregnancy.
She said it was a decision made solely by the Reid Park Zoo, but it was based on information from the American Zoo and Aquarium Association and the Elephant Species Survival Plan Steering Committee. Last year that committee had recommended that Shaba have two babies in her life, but that was revised this week, according to the zoo.
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Basford said the decision not to breed Shaba — who lives with Connie, an Asian elephant — won't have any impact on the planned $8.5 million expanded enclosure for the elephants that was approved by City Council in 2005.
She said there is a little less urgency because Shaba will no longer be breeding, but she added that it really doesn't affect the elephant enclosure. She said the zoo would like to bring in a third elephant, and the expanded enclosure would be needed to do that because "we don't have the capacity for three elephants."
Basford said the decision also was not influenced by the group Save Tucson Elephants, which has been campaigning for the elephants to be moved to a sanctuary in Tennessee where they would have room to roam on about 2,700 acres.
Nikia Fico, the head of Save Tucson Elephants, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Her group has come in front of the City Council during the public-comment period for the past several weeks, urging the council to put the elephants on its agenda.
