Onyx
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B I O - ONYX
The following was written by Murray Hill the original importer/owner of Onyx 4-02-04: "Onyx was imported in Dec. of 1965. As I wanted him as part of the Mitie-Mites. I started working with him after the second day of his arrival. At that time he was about 32 inches tall and weighed about 225 lbs. He was already eating grain so I poured it out to him to gain weight. He showed great promise right from the beginning as he picked up what I wanted from him. He was no problem during the working periods but when he was with the other elephants he was a practical joker with some of the antics he used on them. The older he got the more he showed his innovations with what he (I assume) thought to be funny pranks. This behavior very soon moved from the other elephants to humans. One of his favorites was women that would visit and be in awe of the baby elephants. The women would always want to pet the elephants. He would move as forward as he could on the line and bend his head towards them as if to say "pet me". He particularly liked women with skirts or dresses. As they would pet him on the head he would drop his trunk to the ground, turn it outward and blow up their skirt or dress. As the woman would jump his eyes lit up as if to say " I Got Ya". In the act he was also a clown. Whenever he would get a laugh from the audience he would repeat that, show after show. One of his favorites was dropping a turd in the ring as that would bring laughter. After a while it got so that he would drop one turd after each trick. That was quite a problem to correct. As he got older he never lost his sense of humor always looking for a laugh but it got more serious. He started showing signs of musth period at the age of 8. Each year his musth period extended slightly but never showed any change in temperament until he was about 15. At that time he turned on me and I knew it was time to put him in a facility that could handle a bull in full blown musth. He worked with the Mitie-Mites from 1965 until September of 1980." The following are excerpts from other places on the web we have gathered on the web about Onyx and credits from their sites are at the bottom of each article. Onyx was wild-born in the Assam Valley of northern India. He was imported in 1965 from Bangkok, Thailand. He was originally owned by Murray Hill Enterprises and performed from 1965 to 1980 in a group known as the "Mitie-Mites" - the world’s smallest performing elephant act. Onyx
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Onyx is known by the Springfield area community as "Big Mac" and has sired 12 calves at Dickerson Park Zoo, two of which have been born at other institutions. At the time of their arrival in North America, the collective weight of all three elephants in the "Mitie-Mites" group was less than 1,000 pounds. When he arrived at Dickerson Park Zoo, Onyx weighed approximately 7,500 pounds. Currently Onyx measures almost 11 feet tall at the top of his back and weighs more than 12,000 pounds. The Dickerson Park Zoo staff began developing methods of semen collection from Onyx in 1981. The collection technique was refined during Onyx’s years in free-contact management and was reestablished with him in 1992. A hydraulic restraint chute in the breeding center aids the staff to more safely conduct collections. As a result of these efforts, the staff at Dickerson Park Zoo has gained valuable knowledge in the areas of semen collection, analysis, extension and cryopreservation. Semen from Onyx has been used in artificial insemination work both on-site and at the St. Louis Zoo, San Francisco Zoo, Greater Baton Rouge Zoo, National Zoo and Woodland Park Zoo. After more than 15 years of research and numerous failed attempts, Dickerson Park Zoo’s staff achieved the first-ever successful pregnancy resulting from artificial insemination. DPZ’s cow Moola gave birth to Haji in November 1999. Research with Onyx has also contributed valuable data and samples for numerous research projects involving musth, infrasonic communication, estrus detection, pheromones and other areas of elephant physiology http://www.zoo.org/chai/site/story/story.htm
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Dickerson Park Zoo
News Release
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| Asian elephant Chai gives birth to
235-pound baby girl at Woodland Park Zoo on November 3, 2000.
On November 3, 2000, at 4:48 a.m., a 235-pound girl was born to Chai, an Asian elephant, at Woodland Park Zoo, after a typical 22-month elephant pregnancy. The birth was historic and not only for the new mother. Asian elephants are an endangered species, with from 35,000 to 50,000 left in the wild, and about 300 in captivity in North American zoos. The baby is healthy and on her first day goes from wobbling to running. She is clueless how to stop and runs into her mother's leg. [Note: In March 2001, the baby is named Hansa (pronounced Hun-suh), which means Supreme Happiness in Thai. The name was submitted to a public competition by 6-year-old Madison Gordon, of Redmond.] Zookeepers Help Chai Learn to Mother
Female Asian elephants live in groups known as
matriarchies. As with other higher mammals, maternal behavior is
learned. In captivity Chai has not had an opportunity to observe
mothering, but she is bonding with her calf very nicely. The baby
cannot reach her mother's milk (elephants have only two human-like
breasts between their front legs). In the wild the mother elephant
knows to kneel down, plus in the wild the Aunty elephants babysit and
provide other assistance. The zookeepers have built a little platform
for this baby to climb up on so the calf can reach her mother's milk
and this works very well. The baby, who will be named this spring in a
public contest, will nurse for two years.
Chai is a 21-year-old elephant from Thailand, who
arrived in Seattle at age one and grew up at Woodland Park Zoo. She
lives within the third ranking of the dominance hierarchy of the zoo's
four elephants. The other elephants were permitted to witness the
birth and they can see the new baby but they are being kept separate.
Breeding in Captivity: Difficult and Dicey For six years, attempts were made to artificially inseminate Chai. She was inseminated more than 50 times, but never got pregnant. Therefore it was decided to try to breed her with a bull elephant. The Woodland Park Zoo elephant exhibit is designed for female elephants and has no bull. It was decided to breed Chai to Onyx, a bull at Dickerson Park Zoo, in Missouri. Onyx aka "Big Mac" was born in the Assam Valley in northern India. He was once part of a three-elephant act known as the "Mitie-Mites." For Chai, the journey to Missouri would involve a long and extremely stressful trip. But, since she wasn't getting pregnant, and since elephants in captivity tend to lose the ability to get pregnant at about age 25, it was decided that it had to be done. A special elephant crate was brought to the zoo and the keepers trained her to get into the crate. Finally she got in for the big trip. The door was closed and the crate was forklifted onto a truck and Chai began her 2,100-mile trip to Missouri. It was 60 hours on the road. According to lead elephant keeper Pat Maluy:
Chai spent 51 weeks socializing with Onyx and the other elephants. Elephants are clannish and slow to accept newcomers and the other females at Dickerson picked on her. She was unhappy and lost 1,000 pounds. But finally she got pregnant and could come home. The trip home was a breeze. She ate all the way. She knew she was coming home. Her keeper stayed in the cage with her and when he fell asleep she would sniff his face with her trunk. When she arrived the other elephants became extremely excited. Baby Takes First Steps and First Run Her calf was born 22 months later, exactly on schedule. After the new baby was born, the public was barred from visiting for the first two days to enable Chai to bond with her without disturbance. The public was admitted on the third day. A baby elephant is like a colt, and she stood, walked, and ran on the first day. Chai's legs had been chained so she wouldn't squash
the baby, and they were unchained on November 6. According to lead
elephant keeper, Pat Maluy, Chai and her calf were learning how to
walk around each other. "Chai treads carefully and adjusts her body to
accommodate her calf beneath her legs."
Sources: By Priscilla Long, November 4, 2000 http://www.historylink.org/_output.CFM?file_ID=2784
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donated to Friends of the Zoo and loaned to Dickerson Park Zoo in
September 1980. He was worked through free-contact management until
the off-exhibit elephant breeding facility was completed at Dickerson
Park Zoo in July 1988. He has been worked only by protected-contact
management since then.
Hansa
1 year old picture. Photo, Courtesy
Woodland Park Zoo
