GERMANY: Baby elephant rescued moments after his mother apparently tried to crush and drown him

Record ID: 185021

  • Title: GERMANY: Baby elephant rescued moments after his mother apparently tried to crush and drown him
  • Date: 26th May 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (German) BERLIN ZOO DIRECTOR BERNHARD BLASZKIEWITZ SAYING: "It was neither scary nor dramatic, it was an ordinary birth. The only abnormal thing was that she came a day earlier than expected and that it happened in the open enclosure in front of the other elephants. The little one was very strong, stood immediately, went then into the big water basin and swam - I didn't even know that they are that strong shortly after birth - but of course we did not wait until he came out all by himself but helped him out because we did not want him to be exhausted. Then we took the mother and him inside and let them together so it was all fine."
  • Embargoed: 10th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Nature / Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA4BE5Z7HGNSYHIPFONGO6OZ0MU
  • Story Text: Forget about Knut, Berlin has a new four-legged star - a baby elephant who was rescued from the pool after his mother apparently tried to crush and drown him.
    The little elephant-boy - yet unnamed - was born a day early that expected on Sunday at the elephant enclosure in the capital's Tierpark zoo.
    But that was, according to zoo director Bernhard Blaszkiewitz, the only drama: "It was neither scary nor dramatic, it was an ordinary birth. The only abnormal thing was that she came a day earlier than expected and that it happened in the open enclosure in front of the other elephants," Blaszkiewitz told Reuters.
    At the little elephant's first outing on Wednesday (May 23) Blaszkiewitz played down any danger to his life from his mother. He "... went than into the big water basin and swam - I didn't even know that they are that strong shortly after birth - but of course we did not wait until he came out all by himself but helped him out because we did not want him to be exhausted. Then we took the mother and him inside and let them together so it was all fine."
    Newspaper reports showed the baby elephant being pulled out of the pool by its trunk.
    The zoo said the young bull was the third baby born to 26-year-old African elephant Pori, and the twelfth at the zoo since 1998. He weighed 117.2 kilograms (258.4 pounds) at birth and had a back length of 91 centimetres (35.8 inches).
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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