title: Freezing African elephant semen as a new population management tool.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The captive elephant population is not self-sustaining and with a limited number of breeding bulls, its genetic diversity is in decline. One way to overcome this is to import young and healthy animals from the wild. We introduce here a more sustainable alternative method - importation of semen from wild bulls without removing them from their natural habitat. Due to the logistics involved, the only practical option would be to transport cryopreserved sperm. Despite some early reports on African elephant semen cryopreservation, the utility of this new population management tool has not been evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Semen was collected by electroejaculation from 14 wild African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) bulls and cryopreserved using the directional freezing technique. Sperm treatments evaluated included the need for centrifugation, the use of hen or quail yolk, the concentration of glycerol (3%, 5% or 7%) in the extender, and maintenance of motility over time after thawing. Our results suggest that dilution in an extender containing hen yolk and 7% glycerol after centrifugation best preserved post-thaw sperm motility when compared to all other treatments (P≤0.012 for all). Using this approach we were able to achieve after thawing (mean ± SD) 54.6±3.9% motility, 85.3±2.4% acrosome integrity, and 86.8±4.6% normal morphology with no decrease in motility over 1 h incubation at 37°C. Sperm cryopreserved during this study has already lead to a pregnancy of a captive female elephant following artificial insemination.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With working techniques for artificial insemination and sperm cryopreservation of both African and Asian elephants in hand, population managers can now enrich captive or isolated wild elephant populations without removing valuable individuals from their natural habitat.
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproduction Management, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany. hermes@izw-berlin.de
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hermes
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Saragusty
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Göritz
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bartels
authors.forename: Romain
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Potier
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: W Jürgen
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Streich
authors.forename: Thomas B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Hildebrandt
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004606:Elephants / Q000502:physiology*; D005615:Freezing; D008297:Male; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012661:Semen / Q000378:metabolism*; D013019:South Africa; D013081:Sperm Motility; D013997:Time Factors