Baby elephant's death sparks breeding debate
09-03-2010 By environment reporter Sarah Clarke and staff, ABC News, Australia
The death of an unborn elephant calf at Taronga Zoo has prompted renewed debate about breeding the animals in captivity.
The mother elephant, Porntip (left), had a week of difficult labour (AAP: Dean Lewins)
The Sydney zoo had been expecting the birth of a second elephant calf any day, but an ultrasound confirmed it died in the final weeks of a two-year pregnancy.
The mother elephant, Porntip, had a week of difficult labour. Weighing 100 kilograms, staff said a caesarean section to deliver the calf was never an option.
And it could take months for the mother elephant to give birth to the dead calf.
The zoo is devastated by the news but says the first-time mum appeared relieved and will breed again.
"I am confident with the care that she's got she'll breed again. That will be the best outcome for us," zoo veterinarian Larry Vogelnest said.
"Because it was upside down, the head was being pulled by gravity and would never have been able to get through the birth canal. [It would have been] physically impossible."
But conservation groups say it is a tragedy that should never have happened and claim city zoos are the problem.
"In the crammed city conditions like the zoo, they can't express those natural behaviours as much as they would like," Humane Society International spokeswoman Alexia Wellbelove said.
Originally used to give tourist rides in Thailand, Porntip is described as the matriarch of the group at Taronga.
Last July, Luk Chai was born to another of the zoo's Asian elephants, Thong Dee.
The zoo says first deliveries are only successful in about 50 per cent of elephant births.
It is expecting its second naturally conceived calf later this year.
(Bron: http://www.abc.net.au/)
(Bron foto: ABC News)
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