Photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Zoo. The Indianapolis Zoo, Dr. Dennis Schmitt DVM, Ph.D. of Southwest Missouri State University, the National Zoo, and others have been collaborating with IZW on this procedure for the past several years. Dr. Schmitt prepared the elephant semen donated by bulls held at the Kansas City Zoo and Disney's Animal Kingdom. IMLS Crucial Contributions IMLS funded two crucial portions of the research. In 1994, the Indianapolis Zoo received a Conservation Project support grant to help researchers better understand the female elephant estrous cycle.
Ovulation is the release of the egg during the female estrous cycle.
At the time of the grant, LH in the elephant was poorly understood, and therefore the time of ovulation was not predictable. Determining ovulation was one of the three components to a successful artificial insemination, with the other two being acquisition of semen and the delivery system of the semen to the egg. Imagine the research team's surprise when not only did the blood sampling regimen provide the date of ovulation of it elephants as they had hoped, but it also uncovered the fact that elephants have two LH surges and these surges are nearly always predictable at about 20-21 days apart. The researchers know that the second LH surge indicates ovulation, while the purpose of the first surge is still a mystery. However, with the discovery of the existence of the first surge, the dream of artificial insemination became more realistic.