ZURICH — A 19-year-old Asian elephant on the Zurich Zoo gave start this weekend to a male calf whose title, beginning with the letter Z, shall be introduced this week.
A lightweight-sensitive monitoring digital camera picked up the start earlier than daybreak Saturday and the infant’s earliest, wobbly steps contained in the zoo’s Kaeng Krachan Elephant Park. It is now residence to 6 of the pachyderms: 4 females together with mom Farha; bull elephant and father Thai; and the brand new calf.
Zoo Director Severin Dressen mentioned employees had been completely happy however “nonetheless cautious” in regards to the start.
“The primary weeks of a calf’s life are all the time essentially the most delicate — even when the calf at the moment seems wholesome and match,” he mentioned in a press release.
The Asian elephant, or Elephas maximus, is a critically endangered species with about 50,000 estimated within the wild, and their numbers are declining, the zoo mentioned. The zoo breeds the elephants as a part of conservation efforts below the European Endangered Species Program, Dressen mentioned.
Zoo staffers made certain to maintain Farha — already a mom of three — away from one other feminine named Panang, who has had little earlier expertise with younger animals, and the separation will proceed for the approaching days.
Such births are comparatively uncommon in zoos in comparison with these of different species due to the elephant’s almost two-year gestation interval, zoo officers mentioned.
A zoo spokesman mentioned the title of the brand new calf shall be introduced after a employees assembly on Wednesday, however 2025 is a “Z” yr so the moniker will mechanically begin with that letter.
