Center for Elephant Conservation

Mable

IT’S A GIRL! Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation^® Announces Birth of 20th Asian Elephant Calf
(Vienna, VA) – The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation® (CEC) proudly announced today the birth of a healthy female Asian elephant – marking the twentieth birth in what is already one of the most successful Asian elephant breeding programs. The calf, born on April 6, 2006, 9:08 p.m. at 295 pounds, is a rare second-generation offspring of eleven-year-old Shirley and thirteen-year-old Romeo, who were also born into the Ringling Bros.® conservation program.
“The endangered Asian elephant has been a revered member of the Ringling Bros. family for 136 years, so our commitment to their salvation around the world is of paramount importance,” said Kenneth Feld, Chairman and Producer of Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey®. “Every calf born into our care represents another important step toward sustaining this remarkable species for generations to come.” A team of expert veterinarians and elephant husbandry specialists will watch over and care for the new calf as she grows and develops. The calf's name Mable after the wife of John Ringling, one of the original Ringling Brothers, was selected through a national naming vote Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® conducted with Weekly Reader's Teen Kids News program. The goal of the Ringling Bros. CEC is to focus on the research, reproduction and retirement of Asian elephants. Since its inception, it has seen unprecedented breeding success, due to a dedicated and expert staff of veterinarians, scientists and animal care experts. Ringling Bros. has the largest sustainable population of captive Asian elephants in the Western hemisphere.

“With fewer than 35,000 Asian elephants left in the wild, this birth represents an unwavering commitment by Ringling Bros. to safeguard the future of this endangered species, literally one baby step at a time,” said Bruce Read, Ringling Bros. Vice President of Animal Stewardship. “The Ringling Bros. CEC is the central point for our global collaboration in scientific research and we are proud of the important work being done here and the contributions our team is making to ensure the preservation of this magnificent creature.”

In the last year Ringling Bros.® has committed more than $300,000 to fund the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo’s research projects on endotheliotropic herpes viruses, the single greatest health threat to the Asian elephant, and a reproductive study aimed at increasing the captive population of the Asian elephant. In 2005, Ringling Bros. formed a partnership with the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas, allowing the Zoo the opportunity to acquire, through a companion elephant program, a male Asian elephant from the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation in an effort to increase reproduction rates with the female Asian elephants based there.

About the Ringling Bros. CEC: The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation® was founded by Feld Entertainment, Inc., the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, to ensure that future generations have the opportunity to experience the endangered Asian elephant. Built in 1995, this 200-acre, state-of-the-art facility was designed for the reproduction, research and retirement of the Asian elephant, enabling Ringling Bros. to share its elephant husbandry knowledge with the veterinary and conservation communities worldwide.