Find out what's new with our baby elephant calf
Friday 28 May 2004
Our baby elephant is having a whale of a time and she's got teeth - all four of them!
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(Photo: Our elephant calf with her mother. Copyright PA News)
PA News
It will take a while for the baby elephant to learn to use its trunk to eat. At first she could only wave it around a bit, but now she can pick up pieces of hay.She gives it a good chew, but sometimes it falls out again - she's still learning how to eat.
Baby elephants feed from their mothers for around three years, but also eat vegetation. She will learn to feed by watching her mother and other members of the herd.
Look how she's grown!
1 April - 137Kg
1 May - 159Kg
1 June - 177Kg
23 June - 197Kg
She's quite boisterous and not as shy as she used to be. Now she'll wonder much further away from her mother and the other cows.
Her favourite play mate is her 'auntie' Lucha, who is also a close pal of her mother, Kaylee.
Elephants live in family groups or herds. When a calf is born the other female elephants in the herd, called 'aunties', or 'allo-mothers', play a very important role in looking after the little calf and allowing the mother time to eat, rest and produce milk.
"Having a morning bath is her favourite thing," said James Lingard, our Elephant Keeper. "We spray the elephants every morning and the baby rolls around in her little paddling pool - she loves it."
(Photo: Our elephant calf with her mother. Copyright PA News)
