Officials hope initiative will boost dwindling numbers in US

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania - Zoo officials trying to establish North America's first elephant sperm bank have been slowed by bureaucratic hurdles but hope South African officials will approve shipping frozen elephant semen to the United States in about a month.

Officials at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium have had difficulty getting export and import permits for 16 liters of semen being stored in the National Zoo's BioBank in Pretoria, South Africa, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported on Monday.

"It is taking longer than we hoped, but we knew when we started that it had not been done before," said Barbara Baker, president and chief executive officer of the Pittsburgh Zoo.

Scientists collected the samples last year as part of what's called Project Frozen Dumbo, a two-year international effort to help preserve elephants and breed them in captivity without having to ship animals from zoo to zoo.

The ZooParc de Beauval in France collected its semen samples in 2009 and has already set up a sperm bank in Europe as part of the international effort is being led by Thomas Hildebrandt, head of reproduction at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin. Semen for the North American bank was collected only last year, which is why the effort is lagging behind Europe's, Pittsburgh zoo spokeswoman Connie George said.

The initiative is especially important because the elephant population in captivity in North America consists largely of animals past prime breeding age, which George said is from the late teens through the 20s. Elephants can live into their 50s, though that's rare due to poaching and other issues, she said.

"The population of elephants in North America will be depleted in 40 years if we don't bring in new bloodlines," George said.

Leibniz scientist Frank Goeritz is working as a reproductive consultant for the Pittsburgh Zoo and said the problem with getting approval to ship the sperm is that it's never been done here before.

"The law and all these guidelines are different from country to country," Goeritz said. "The problem is there is no standard protocol developed because it's a groundbreaking project."

Once South African scientists get approval to ship the semen, the US Fish and Wildlife Service must agree to bring it into the country, agency spokesman Bill Butcher said.

Associated Press