A female Munich elephant returns to Zurich and Mammut expands to South Korea

The Zurich Zoo’s elephant herd is growing: at the end of November, the 34-year-old female elephant Panang will move from the Hellabrunn Zoo in Munich to Zurich. It will be a family reunion because her mother and sister already live here.

Panang is originally from Zurich: she was born there in February 1989. In 1995, at the age of six, she was taken to the Hellbrunn Zoo in Munich, where she lives today.

The European Conservation Breeding Program for Asian Elephants (EEP) now proposes to keep once separated families together again. The Zurich Zoo is following this advice and is now reuniting Panang with her elderly mother Ceyla-Himali (48 years old) and her previously unknown sister Farha (18 years old), as he announced on Tuesday.

The Zurich Zoo assumes that mother Ceyla-Himali will recognize her daughter Panang even after 28 years of separation. He is also optimistic that the mother can convince the sister to take in the returnee.

Once Panang has settled in Zurich, she will go with the bull elephant Thai provide offspring. Zoo director Severin Dressen is looking forward to the important newcomer from Munich – simply because the Zurich zoo has had little luck keeping elephants in recent years.

Three elephants died of herpes

In 2020, two cubs died, one of which was kicked to death by the group shortly after birth. In 2022, three young elephants died from a herpes infection. Herpes is common among elephants, but can cause death, especially in young elephants, because they have not yet formed antibodies.

In January 2023, the elephant Farha finally gave birth to a cub, which died shortly after birth. The calf turned out to be unviable; organs such as the heart and lungs were not well developed.

(sda)