We need your help in securing a future for elephants here at the
North Carolina Zoo and for elephants in other good American zoos and
ultimately, in the wild. You see, the plight of America’s elephants has
become so grave that, unless we act now, elephants will disappear from
America’s zoos before tomorrow’s children can see, hear or come to love
these magnificent animals. Zoos must either increase the number of
elephant calves being born each year or face the very real danger that
zoo herds will disappear entirely.
The N.C. Zoo and Zoo Society are fully committed to protecting
elephants—our own as well as other elephants in captivity and elephants
in the wild. Our commitment to zoo elephants rests in our belief that
good zoos and good elephant exhibits profoundly shape the hearts and
the minds of zoo visitors.
Good zoos offer the only chance for most people to see the strength,
the size, the intelligence and the community of live elephants, and
these experiences add a texture and a depth to education programs that
cannot be matched by books, recordings or videos. Words and pictures
may explain the “why” and the “how” of protecting elephants, but only
living elephants can breathe commitment and passion into the logic of
conservation.
Because we know the power that zoo elephants can bring to learning, we
are asking you to help us do all we can to secure a future for
elephants here and at other good American zoos. Your gift will do this
by funding the technical equipment Senior Veterinarian Dr. Barbara
Wolfe needs to support her elephant conservation work. (A list of this
equipment is included at the bottom of this page.)
Dr. Wolfe will use the equipment to provide assisted-reproduction
services to elephants living here and in other good zoos across the
United States. Engaging Dr. Wolfe in this work will help ensure that
our elephants—and other elephants across the continent—get the kind of
veterinary support they need to conceive and give birth to strong,
healthy and well-cared for calves.
Dr. Wolfe is superbly prepared to help elephants in this way. She is
board-certified by the American College of Zoological Medicine and has
a Ph.D. in reproductive physiology-. She is an editor for the Journal
of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine and has been assisting reproduction in
endangered species—ocelots and other cats, primates and hoof stock—for
more than ten years.
By providing the equipment Dr. Wolfe needs to facilitate elephant
reproduction, your gift will also expand her capacity to conduct
research to help elephants. Her research will look for ways to improve
the obstetric care available to elephants and the techniques
conservationists use to protect the genetic diversity of elephants in
the wild and in zoos. Consequently, your gift will also help the N.C.
Zoo prepare to record its first elephant birth after its new elephant
exhibit opens in 2007.
The Zoo Society has already raised nearly a third of the $42,250 that
Dr. Wolfe needs to extend her veterinary services to America’s
elephants and to begin her important research, too.
A gift from you now
will help ensure that Dr. Wolfe is fully prepared to make her knowledge
and talents available to America’s elephants in the coming year.
Budget – Elephant Conservation and Breeding Program
Item Supplier Cost
Ultrasound transducer 7.5 MHz Sonosite $ 9,500
Sonosite imaging software Sonosite 1,000
Sony video recorder UP895 Sonosite 900
Ultrasound goggles Cyberworld 1,000
Insemination cannula 1,000
Transducer adaptor Jeff Wines or in-house 1,200
Plate reader Dynex MRX Revelation 9,000
Pipetters Gilson/Rainin 850
pH meter Daigger 300
Plate shaker Daigger 750
Vortex Daigger 250
Magnetic stirrer VWR 200
Glas-Col Lg Capacity Mixer Daigger 1,800
Pipet-Aid Daigger 300
Osmometer 5,700
Supplies for startup Variable 3,000
Tabletop centrifuge and parts VWR 3,500
Analytical balance Daigger 2,000
------Total $42,250
Last modified
12/20/2004 01:19pm.
