After three deaths: Mourning at Zurich Zoo – bull elephant dies a few minutes after birth

After a gestation period of about 22 months, the Elephant cow Farha her elephant calf on Saturday to the world. Birth occurred shortly before midnight within the family, analogous to wild elephants. As the Zurich Zoo reports, Zoom employees have been observing the behavior of the animal intensively for several days and, in combination with the regularly measured hormone values, have therefore been able to anticipate the time of birth and thus monitor the entire process.

Since the birth had not taken place several hours after the amniotic fluid had passed, the zoo’s veterinary team induced it with a labour-inducing drug. A little later, Farha gave birth to the male cub. “The actions of mother Farha and the natural social behavior of grandmother Ceyla-Himali during the birth process were exemplary,” writes the Zurich Zoo. After the successful birth, however, it quickly became apparent that the elephant calf was weak.

Farha and Ceyla-Himali would have looked after the calf and instinctively and exemplary tried to revive it. According to the zoo, the veterinarians present also tried to support the elephant bulls with medication to get them started – but without the desired success. The cub died shortly after birth. A video shows how the animal initially moves its legs. According to the zoo, it then showed problems with breathing.

In order to determine the exact cause of death, the elephant calf will be examined pathologically in the next few days. Currently there is nothing to suggest a connection with the viral diseases that occurred in the summer.

It is not the first bad news for Zurich Zoo: Just last summer, three elephants succumbed to elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV). At the end of June, the two-year-old elephant bull Umesh died, almost two weeks later the elephant cow Omysha and late July the Elephant Cave at the disease.