A new study comparing wild, captive and working elephants has found that living in zoos can significantly shorten the animals' lives.

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Writing in the journal Science, researchers say obesity is a major cause of death in adult zoo elephants.

They also cite stress as the key factor in the death of young captive animals when they are moved from zoo to zoo.

They say ideally zoos should not take on new elephants if they cannot provide suitable environments.

Remember Vickie, the VA adult female who was given a collar on 20 December 2007? Well, she just added another member to the already biggest family in the Amboseli Ecosystem. Vicky gave birth to a healthy looking female calf estimated to have been born on 25 October of this year.

Isis was thought to be the oldest Elephant in the whole of the Amboseli Elephant population. She is estimated to have been born in the mid 1930's, accurately 1936, according to Cynthia Moss's records. It is with sad emotion that we announce the death by old age of one of the best known and studied matriarchs, Isis of the IB family. Her lower jaw shows that she was down to her last molar which is smooth and completely worn out.

With the drought now breaking, the EB's welcomed a new-born baby only five days ago. It's Eudora's new-born, her sixth calf since her first, Elspeth, in 1988. Her calves would have today totalled six, but she lost two of them the same year they were born. Her second calf, born in 1993, died the same year. Third is Eldon, a male born in 1996 and already gone independent, which is pretty early at twelve years old. Her fourth calf, born in 2000, also died the same year. Fifth is Essien, born in 2002, and the last is the latest arrival in the family, a female.

Leticia is a matriarch of the LB family, born in the early 1940's. She had her first calf, Luke, a male, born in 1966 and her last-born, Leo, born in 1995. Leticia is recorded to have given birth to seven calves, of which two died and five are still alive. As an Elephant at this age, the current drought in Amboseli National Park and the entire ecosystem is proving to be tough for Leticia. Elephants are adapted to a life of foraging; feeding approximately 60% of a 24-hour day they consume 150-350 kg, or four to six percent of their body weight.

Musth in Elephants is a period of heightened sexual and aggressive activity characterized by a distinct posture, the musth walk, swollen and secreting temporal glands, the dribbling of strong smelling urine and very low frequency vocalizations, the musth rumble. The point at which males come into musth during the year, how long they can remain in musth, and the numbers of females in estrus around while they are in musth, all contribute to a male’s annual success or failure.

Odile, now in her early 40’s, is estimated to have been born in the 1960’s and is the current matriarch of the OB family. Today the OB family totals to 16 members, with Ottoline [Odile's daughter, born in 1982], being the second oldest female. In 2004 Odile went through a tragic experience when her 2002 male, [two years old calf] was speared by Maasai warriors in Amboseli National Park due to retaliation for reasons which were never comprehended. Not only did Odile lose her calf, she also suffered severe head injuries from spears embedded in her forehead when she was found.

Cynthia Moss, the founder of the Amboseli Elephant Research project, first met the EBs in August 1973. Little male, born in 1968, was son to Emily, a female of the EB family group. By 1983 Little Male was spending less than 20% of his time with the family and thus by our definition he was considered independent. He first came in musth on the 6th June 1999 and has been active since then.

Little male spends most of his time in the Eastern side outside the Amboseli National Park, where conflict is very high due to farming. This year he has been recorded in musth from June to August.