Asian elephants from the Netherlands are doing well in Washington D.C.

The Asian elephant females Trong Nhi and Nhi Linh, who moved last month from Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam to Washington D.C. in the United States, are doing well. They have just come out of quarantine and have not yet met their peers at Smithsonian National Zoo, said researcher Jeroen Kappelhof, who traveled with the two elephant females. However, they are now allowed to explore the zoo's many enclosures.

Wageningen University & Research (WUR) reported on the long journey this week. The species is doing very well in European zoos, but not in the US. The researchers hope that the prolific Trong Nhi and Nhi Linh will help the population grow and bring more genetic diversity.

The two elephants were trained months in advance for the long journey, hoping to make it less stressful for the animals. They flew from Liège in Belgium on a cargo flight to JF Kennedy Airport in New York in early November. From there, they continued on to Washington D.C.

"They could touch each other with their trunks during the journey," said Kappelhof. "They also had enough water and food, of course." In addition to the researcher, a veterinarian and two animal caretakers accompanied the flight.

"I got the impression that the elephants were quite calm about the trip, but of course that's always an assumption you make as a human," Kappelhof explained.

It's not intentional for a cargo flight to transport elephants intercontinental more often. "For this to happen is rather unusual," he said. According to Kappelhof, there is increasing international collaboration on Asian elephant research and the species' genes.

Kappelhof conducts research into the genetic diversity of the animal. When zoos got Asian elephants, they came from everywhere. "One was a gift from the Thai king, and many came from Burma, for example. These animals had different genetic material, but have been together for a long time now," the researcher explained. "The question is to what extent their genetic material still matches that of the animals in the wild."

For the research, Kappelhof is looking at the current genetic material of elephants in zoos worldwide and that of elephants that once came from the wild but now live in zoos. Later, samples from wild elephants, for example in Laos, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, may be added.

Unfortunately, the Asian elephant is an endangered species. Researchers are now looking into whether it will ever be possible to return elephants from zoos to the wild. "But this plan is still in the brainstorming phase," mentioned Kappelhof. If the elephants differ too much genetically, this can have major consequences, and possibly even be harmful to the species.