On 15th March 2013, I posted on another topic concerning the birth of a Thai elephant at Melbourne Zoo.

The post reads as follows:

"Meet 'SANOOK', Melbourne Zoo's latest arrival. Such a beautiful name for a baby Thai elephant.

Sanook was born in captivity, and will probably never experience freedom in his life.

At least he is safe and secure."

It is with much regret that I must now inform my fellow Thai Visa members that Sanook tragically died overnight when he got trapped inside his favourite tyre and choked to death. He was not as safe and secure as I thought.

Full story here: www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-04/baby-elephant-sanook.../5133470

Please excuse me whilst I shed a tear.

I too read the story very sad and no one was to blame he was safe as the tire he somehow got into a difficult position and chocked tires are use in many animal facilities around the world so sad for the little guy

Radar501 ... I was going to write the story up, but I couldn't get any sources on it apart from hearing the News on the ABC.

But since you bought the story to us in the first place ... fitting you also bring us this sad news.

I was still trying to confirm that 'Sanok' who was named by the residents of Melbourne was indeed a Thai Elephant.

The report I heard was just the Sanok was an 'Asian' Elephant, born at the Melbourne Zoo.

Sad News ...

Hi David.

I wasn't sure about Sanook's genetic code myself, so I did a bit of on-line research on my critically slow computer.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_elephant the Asiatic elephant (Elephas maximus) is divided into three sub-species.

The Sri Lankan sub-species is native to.........Sri Lanka

The Sumatran sub-species is native to..........yep, Sumatra, and also Borneo.

The Indian sub-species is native to the Indian sub-continent, and other parts of South East Asia, including Thailand.

So, you were on the right track in questioning if there is a biological classification for Thai elephants. There is none.

Sanook's mother arrived in Melbourne from the Thailand jungle in 2006, so I assume she is from the Indian sub-species. The father, I'm not sure about, but I imagine he is from the same sub-species, as zoos are very mindful of preserving the genetic purification of offspring.

I was at Melbourne Zoo about three months ago, and Sanook was a crowd puller. Just like most eight month old toddlers of the Homo Sapien species, he was a cheeky little imp, giving his Mum hell. RIP little fella.

PS Nice to see you put up some pretty Christmas decorations in your avatar box.

Cheers, Radar.

Sad to see this. At least he will be missed. Hopefully whatever life elephants come back will be as caring as the one he had in his short life and be a lot longer.