The baby elephant is tended by zoo staff.
A baby elephant feared dead by Australian zoo staff has defied the experts – by being born alive!
The baby elephant calf was positioned upside-down and head-first in the birth canal – the usual birth position for elephants is to be the right way up and back feet first. So unusual was this position that keepers and experts announced on Monday that the calf had sadly died.
Upset staff were preparing for a still birth when Porntip, the mother, went into labour during the early hours of this morning. Yet sadness turned to astonishment and then joy when the male calf was born at 3.27am alive and well!
Porntip had been labouring for six days when an expert team of vets discovered the calf’s position. An ultrasound scan detected no signs of movement and so the baby elephant was pronounced dead. Experts and zoo staff are astonished at the happy outcome and are now searching for explanations for the extraordinary birth.
Taronga Zoo’s Senior Vet Dr Larry Vogelnest believes that the baby could have been in a coma: “The early indications are that the calf survived the protracted labour in a coma. That unconscious state would explain the complete absence of any vital signs during all the checks and examinations we conducted during the labour and led us to believe the calf had not survived.”
Elephant Manager Gary Miller spoke of the staffs delight when news broke out that the baby elephant was alive: “When the keepers learned the calf had survived this morning, the looks of disbelief on our faces were quite a picture. We couldn’t believe that this could be true.”
But the baby isn’t quite out of danger yet as the next 24 hours remain critical. He weighs in at between 90 – 100kg and has managed to take his first drink of colostrum – vital first milk. He has attempted to suckle from his mother but hasn’t quite managed it yet. The bond between baby and mother is strong, with Porntip gently exploring him with her trunk and encouraging him to take his first steps.
The baby elephant is only the second to be born at the zoo which celebrated back in July 2009 when it became the first Australian zoo to successfully breed an Asian elephant calf. The male calf born this morning is the first calf to be conceived by artificial insemination at the zoo.
The zoo said that the site would be updated with the baby’s progress. Find out how the baby elephant is getting on with the elephant diaries at Taronga Zoo.
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