An elephant calf was born at the Planckendael animal park in Malines early on Wednesday. May Tagu has given birth for the first time. However, the calf is now in a critical situation due to the mother’s clumsiness and inexperience. After a 605 day pregnancy, she gave birth at 4.50am. The baby elephant seems to have been well accepted by the other members of the family, but May Tagu is refusing to let them go near it. She is trying to protect the little one, but knocks it over when it tries to stand.
“Standing requires a lot of energy and makes the baby very weak”, explained Planckendael in a press release. “It hasn’t been able to feed from the mother yet. That has to happen today.”
The team vet and the animal park team are keeping a close eye on the situation.
(Source: Belga)
