the jerusalem zoo's thai elephant tamara (a present from His Highness the King) gave birth this morning to a baby boy (named gabi, after the zoo vet that was in charge of the elephant pregnancy program, he died last year in car accident) , after being artificially inseminated two years ago (long prgnancy) i think they induced her birth since her hormone levels had decreased drastically (she might not have been able to go into labour)...

this is her first birth and she was helped by her mahout from thailand (the thai elephant workers live with the elephants in special quarters) and vets and keepers... she is paired with suzanne to help her since elephants help each other with birthing and baby rearing... there is a site online but have to find it... one for zookeepers, one for the public... we have to go and bring peppers and veggies to the thai guy living htere now (the other one is on home break in thailand) so maybe we will get a glimpse...

EDIT: She is with micaela not suzanne

the baby is 90 kilos and has not nursed yet'

http://www.jerusalemzoo.org.il/main/upload/

this is the first A.I. in israel and goes towards developing a program for preventing the demise of the asian elephant

Edited December 10, 200520 yr by bina

How lovely. Just make sure she carries on living there rather than being transferred back to LOS. Poor baby elephant I see trudging along Sukhumwit most afternoons. Very sad.

I read in a British newspaper that the momma was artificially inseminated with the sperm from a male from Wipsnade Zoo in England.

germany from what my daughter says... we actually saw the insemination process... pretty cool really.... the baby is now nursing...