Two elephant brothers reunite at Selwo Aventura in Estepona
Both were born in Madrid and have completed the integration process that allows them to live together again
The elephants Hope and Bogor now share the same space at Selwo Aventura. These two brothers - Hope, a Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus) weighing 1,500 kilograms, and Bogor, an Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) - have now completed the necessary process to live together again.
Both were born at the Madrid Zoo Aquarium as part of the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) and lived there for three years.
In 2023, Bogor arrived at the Estepona enclosure, and Hope did so at the end of March, a few days after his sixth birthday, as it was considered the right time for him to be emancipated from his group in the Madrid enclosure.
Since his arrival, a process of gradual contact was set in motion, first only visual contact, and then protected physical contact. But the process has now been completed and the siblings now share facilities, communication and games at Estepona Zoo.
Behind this union there are, as occurs in each of the zoos integrated in AIZA (Iberian Association of Zoos and Aquariums) and EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria), technical motivations.
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These are summarised in the designation, by the EEP, of Selwo Aventura as a facility “to house males, whether juveniles or single adults”, as explained by Eloy Serrano, head of conservation at the Estepona site. Selwo Aventura is also home to Jangoli, an elderly female who, at 58 years of age, has very different social requirements to those of her young male companions.
Hope's subspecies, the Sumatran elephant, is critically endangered. As an adult, it is between 1.7 and 2.3 metres tall, weighs two to four tonnes and, unlike African elephants, only the males have tusks. It is a social animal, grouped in matriarchal systems around an adult female, although the males, once they reach a certain age, separate to live alone.
