SEATTLE -- Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo is trying again to get one of their elephants pregnant.
Chai, a 32-year-old Asian elephant, was artificially inseminated Sunday night. Semen came from a 13-year-old bull housed at Albuquerque's ABQ BioPark Zoo.
Specialists at Woodland Park won't know for about 16 weeks whether the procedure resulted in an embryo. If Chai becomes pregnant, her due date will be sometime in 2013.
Since 2005, Chai has been the subject of 10 artificial inseminations. The attempts resulted in a pregnancy one time, in 2008, however she miscarried.
Female elephants have a large and complex reproductive system, and a lengthy estrus period, resulting in many mistimed or failed insemination attempts in captivity over the years. With technology, training and protected contact, about 20 elephant calves have been born over the last 10 years through artificial insemination.
Woodland Park reports no drugs or sedatives were used on Chai during the procedure, and that she remained calm throughout.
A group that works with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which regulates all accredited animal institutions in this country, reports there are 308 elephants (both African and Asian) currently in captivity in the U.S., and about 80 percent of those elephants are female.
Elephants operate in a matriarchal society. All three of the elephants at Woodland Park Zoo are female.
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