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Zoo trumpets birth of Asian elephant.
Fuzzy 300 pounder is D.C. park's new hope for expanded display.
Zoo trumpets birth of Asian elephant.
Fuzzy 300 pounder is D.C. park's new hope for expanded display.
Washington, The National Zoo's newborn male Asian elephant made his first public appearance Tuesday morning, lolling in the hay beside his mother tow days after his birth, as news cameras flashed and a giraffe chewed leaves and watched from the background. The baby elephant, fuzzy and slightly pink, still appeared a bit unsteady on his feet as he wandered among his mother's legs and took shelter beneath her girth when keepers bathed them with a hose.
The baby pachyderm doesn't have a name yet, but he's hardly going unnoticed. He weighted 325 pounds at birth, but had dropped to 307 Tuesday, and probably will grow to 40 times that size. The Asian elephant, born Sunday afternoon after his mother carried him for 21 months, was substantially larger than the 220 to 280 pounds that infants typically weigh when born in captivity. National Zoo officials expect him to be the centerpiece of their elephant display for the decades to come. "Natural behavior for the Asian elephant is a lot a elephants together that are difference ages," Dr. Lucy Spelman, directory of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, said Tuesday.
An expanded elephant habitat featuring waterfalls, hillsides, and landscaping reminiscent of Asian jungles will be built near the zoo's popular Giant Pant exhibit. The calf's 25 year old mother, Shanthi, whose name means peace in Sinhalese, was given to the zoo in 1976 by Sri Lanka, where she was orphaned as baby. Shanthi's first calf, Kumari, born at the zoo in 1993, died 16 months later of a viral infection. The new elephant habitat will be modeled after the dense forests of Sri Lanka, Sumatra and eastern India, where approximately 30,000 of the animals still live in the wild.
The male calf ws conceived in February of last year by artificial insemination. The sperm was taken from Calvin, a 13 year old male from the African Lion Safari theme Park in Calgary, Canada. It took two years and six attempts to produce a successful pregnancy for Shanthi. The resulting bull is the second Asian elephant to be conceived through the procedure, which has also produced three African elephants. Some 20,000 Asian elephants are in captivity. But rather than given an opportunity to breed, most are used in logging or other work or are in circus acts.
"If they're working, they're not breeding," said Spelman, who considers habitat enhancement coupled with artificial insemination key to helping the 30 captive females considered capable of conceiving. "It's really the social environment that matters most to them," Spelman said. The calf's weight is expected to increase by up to two pounds a day over the next several weeks, principally on a diet of mother's milk. By late spring, the calf is likely to add fruit, hay and feed to its diet, more than doubling its daily weight gain, Spelman said.
The Elephant House re opens to the public at 10 am today Nov. 28, 2001, zoo officials said, and, barring any medical setbacks, baby and mother will be on view.
Story/From Wire Reports
Picture/Ron Thomas/Associated Press