SLIDE 4
(Thomas Hildebrandt)

We tested our system after several tries in German zoos and in South Africa in immobilized and culled elephants. In South Africa the situation is such that they have too many elephants in protected areas and they must cull some of them every year. We use these culled elephants to test our designs and to improve our knowledge about the reproductive organs in elephants. One thing which is very interesting here is an open uterus. You see these stripes - they are scars from the birth. The elephant placenta is very invasive, and it destroys the tissue in which the embryo is attached to the uterus, causing this scarring, which you can see in ultrasound. And we were able to see such scarring in Shanthi. With ultrasound you are able in live animals to count the births several years prior to the performance of the ultrasound. This is a very interesting phenomenon which we hope we can use in viable programs in countries which have elephants.