Indi Native American Captive Asian Elephants - 742 Words

India El Genetic Diversity in North American Captive Asian Elephants R.Lei, Grewcock Center for Conservation and Research R.A.Brenneman, Grewcock Center for Conservation and Research D.L.Schmitt, Grewcock Center for Conservation and Research E.E.Louis Jr., Grewcock Center for Conservation Research http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2011.00851.x/full For about twenty eight years now the Asian elephant has been struggling for existence. They have been classified as endangered species by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Twenty eight years is quite a large amount of time for an animal to be classified as endangered so The Zoological Society of London decided to look into this issue. Asian elephants have been transferred to captivity for quite some time in the North American region. The Elephas maximus have been captured from these countries in southern Asia and brought over to North America and have experienced many complications that can hinder the genetic diversity of the evolution of the species. Captive populations of the Elephas maximus species may be essential for genetic preservation and aid in decreasing the deterioration of the authentic population (Brenneman et al. 2011). Unfortunately, keeping these elephants captive has caused issues. The females are at least 35 years of age which isn’t very essential for reproduction so as a result the mortality rate amongst the calves and disease within the