JUMBO TODDLER HAS A BIRTHDAY KICK-ABOUT

Euan, one of eight Asian elephants in the herd at Whipsnade, is a typical toddler and enjoys football. With this in mind, his kind keepers have bought him a giant bright blue gym ball to kick around his paddock. And while no birthday party would be complete without a cake, our catering staff have baked the little jumbo a birthday sponge filled with his favourite ingredients.

With this much fun, we hope it’s a birthday this elephant will never forget!

Notes to editors

• Euan was born on September 25th 2004 and is one of two calves at Whipsnade, the second is his half-sister Aneena who is six months older.

• Whipsnade’s herd also includes new face Karishma, who arrived in the summer and fellow females Kaylee, Azizah, Maya, Lucha and male Emmett.

• The elephant paddock at Whipsnade covers an area of about nine acres and comprises of five linked outside areas including a large grass paddock as well as two separate houses. Additional facilities include two pools, mud wallows and dust baths, as well as rubbing posts, shades for summer and high level feeders.

• Diet – hay, fruit, twigs, small branches, bark & carrots.

• Trunks are very muscular (having over 60,000 muscles) and are made up of the nose and upper lip.

· The tusks are modified incisor teeth and in female Asian elephants they remain small and are called tushes.

• The Asian elephants world wide population stands at between 37,000-57,000.

• ZSL has a conservation project in a forest area of Kanchanaburi province, Thailand, where the elephant status is particularly dire due to a loss of habitat. This loss has in turn led to increasing human-elephant conflict, mostly in the form of crop-raiding by elephants. The current phase of the project involves documenting in detail the nature and scale of the problem in the forest to give a better understanding of the problem. ZSL project workers will also test different crop-protection measures and develop a locally-based and managed ecotourism venture, building on the project in a way that benefits those who bear the cost of living with elephants.

• The most obvious difference between African and Asian elephants is the size of the ears. Asian elephants have smaller bodies and much smaller ears. The end of the trunk ends in one finger-like projection instead of two, like the African elephant. They also have 2 domes on their forehead and the end of the trunk as one finger-like projection present as opposed to two in the African.

• You can adopt an elephant for as little as £20 – check out our website on www.zsl.org

• Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity: our key role is the conservation of animals and their habitats. ZSL runs London Zoo and Whipsnade Wild Animal Park, carries out scientific research in the Institute of Zoology and is actively involved in field conservation in other countries worldwide. For further information please visit www.zsl.org

Press Contact

Christine Drabwell
01582 871 303
christine.drabwell@zsl.org