Pregnancy in zoo-managed African elephants (Loxodonta africana): Investigating possible hormonal and metabolic indicators of successful and unsuccessful pregnancies.

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Female African elephants (Loxodanta africana) in zoos in the United States currently have high rates of ovarian acyclicity and if they do become pregnant, the calf is often lost before or during birth. This issue likely stems from various metabolic and reproductive factors, including obesity, advanced age, and stress. While this is a complicated problem, analyzing certain hormones related to reproduction and nutrition in elephants might reveal biological indicators for successful and unsuccessful pregnancies in African elephants. The goal of this study is to create a range of hormone levels throughout a typical successful pregnancy, and to compare these data to unsuccessful pregnancies. This will enable us to determine which hormone(s) have abnormal levels during a miscarriage. As in human pregnancy, the ability to pinpoint base levels of hormones needed to maintain a pregnancy can aid in clinical analyses and help to prevent a miscarriage. Monitoring hormones from serum samples during an elephant’s pregnancy can therefore be used in the same way. For this study, we will analyze progesterone, prolactin, cortisol, leptin, insulin and glucose. Both progesterone and prolactin are hormones important for maintaining pregnancy. Leptin, associated with fat, and cortisol with stress, are two other essential health indicators that could reveal if the issue is metabolic. Overall, this study hopes to use these six biological measures to create a primary analysis of why many pregnancies in female African elephants end in miscarriage.