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| © Photo: Grahm S. Jones (Columbus Zoo and Aquarium) Baby playing in wood shavings that help absorb its urine but, more importantly, provide some fun! |
By Yessenia Funes, Gizmodo
There’s a new joke at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio: Who’s
your daddy? It’s a genuine question for the female baby Asian elephant born early Thursday morning as a result of artificial insemination.
In March 2017, the calf’s mom, Phoebe, was inseminated with two male
elephants’ sperm, which is standard procedure. But the team still hasn’t
been able to confirm whether Hank or Samson is the father.
“Animals in human care are ambassadors for animals in the wild.”
These
things take time, you see. In fact, a team of vets with the zoo and the
Ringling Brothers Center for Elephant Conservation inseminated Phoebe
for the first time back in December 2016. She didn’t get pregnant then,
so the team tried again in March. Elephants’ reproductive cycles give
them only four chances a year at getting pregnant. Second time turned
out to be the charm for Phoebe.
Now,
she’s got a cute little bebe—her fourth, but first girl! The team went
in Thursday morning to give the calf a quick examination, which included
listening to its heartbeat and lungs, and drawing some blood samples.
The exam took all of two minutes, said Randy Junge, the vice president
for animal health at the zoo who was the lead vet on her case. The sex
was confirmed Friday, but she’s still yet to be named.
New births
like this are important for the species, which is endangered in the
wild with less than 50,000 Asian elephants remaining, according to the World Wildlife Fund. These captive animals are unlikely to ever make their way to the forests of the Eastern Himalayas, but their DNA may.
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| © Photo: Grahm S. Jones (Columbus Zoo and Aquarium) My heart... it’s melting. |
Zoos often follow the American Species Survival Plan
when breeding animals in captivity to help maximize genetic diversity.
This program aims to improve conservation in the wild, and helps zoos
determine what animals to breed. If one population is overrepresented in
the wild, for example, then zoos won’t have them make babies. But if a
population is underrepresented, that’s reason to breed more.
“The
idea is to maximize genetic diversity, which makes animals healthier and
important for future generations,” Junge told Earther.
Captive breeding programs can even help rescue species on the brink of extinction in the wild. That’s the case with the critically endangered Sumatran rhino, another Asian mammal whose population is around 80.
As
for the Asian elephant, the current wild population stands at less than
half of what it was at the beginning of the 20th century. Poaching and
habitat loss are pushing this species to the edge and making them
interact more and more with people, which can often wind up being deadly
for the animals (and people foolish enough to hit an elephant with their car).
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| © Photo: Grahm S. Jones (Columbus Zoo and Aquarium) Mommy and daughter. |
When visitors to the Columbus Zoo see the Asian elephants, they get to learn about the species as a whole and the plight it faces outside the zoo’s walls.
“Animals in human care are ambassadors for animals in the wild,” Junge said. “What we learn from them in care is helpful for elephants in the wild.”
“Animals in human care are ambassadors for animals in the wild,” Junge said. “What we learn from them in care is helpful for elephants in the wild.”
