Another baby elephant at Prague Zoo!

News

08. 10. 2016


Tamara gave birth to her first baby elephant shortly after eight o’clock on Friday evening. It was a male weighing eighty kilograms and who started suckling in no time at all. The birth took place in the presence of Janita and Max, her small son born earlier this year. However, on Saturday, the two mothers and their respective babies were separated for a time, because Max’s curiosity about the new-born male got the better of him. However, the pavilion remains open for visitors, and thus they have a unique opportunity to watch the life of a small elephant literally from the first hours after its birth.

Tamara gave birth to her first baby elephant. Photo: Petr Hamerník, Zoo Praha Tamara gave birth to her first baby elephant. Photo: Petr Hamerník, Zoo Praha

Prague Zoo’s Director, Miroslav Bobek, said, “The second, 100% Prague baby elephant in one year, it is a breeding success, which only recently we wouldn’t even have dreamed about. It is primarily the work of our keepers, but also of the promoter, who enabled Elephant Valley to be built, as well as the Czech diplomacy, thanks to which we acquired Tamara and Janita from Sri Lanka, exactly four years ago.”

The small elephant’s father is the bull elephant Ankhor, who came to Prague Zoo on 12 August 2014 from Berlin and immediately showed interest in Tamara at the beginning of December 2014. By contrast, the father of Max, who was born 5 April 2016, is the bull Mekong, who is now living in Emmen, Holland.

Tamara was pregnant for 658 days and her keepers were expecting her to give birth, not just because of the due date, but also due to changes in her hormonal levels. Despite that, on Friday Tamara surprised us all with the speed at which she gave birth to her little one. In fact, however, the birth had already begun the previous night.

The curator of breeding, Pavel Brandl, said, “Elephants, like other animals, are able to pause a birth that occurs during the night. Tamara probably already started giving birth on Thursday night, but with the arrival of day, she postponed the birth until the following evening. Then it all went very quickly.”

The baby elephant will get its name in a few weeks and the general public will be able to choose from several options put forward by the staff at Prague Zoo.

 

Elephant breeding at Zoo Prague:

Elephant breeding at Zoo Prague has a long history dating back to 1933, when the legendary first elephant named Baby arrived. He was followed in 1951 and 1952 by the females Jumba and Duňa and in 1953 there was Petr I. The first elephant compound at Prague Zoo stood on the site of today’s exhibit of lemurs; the next was opened to the public in 1973 and was in the area of today’s Bororo Reservation. Both of them were located in the flood zone. The floods of 2002 demonstrated the need to build a new elephant compound on a site that would not be threatened by possible flooding and in which it would be possible for these rare animals to breed in safety.

The new elephant pavilion was opened to the public in 2013 and currently visitors can observe a parade of nine elephants. The oldest member of the parade is the female Gulab, who came to us in 1966. Other members are the male Ankhor, the females Shanti, Donna and Tamara, the 3-year-old female Sita, 6 month-old Maximilian and the new-born male. The birth of a second baby elephant at Prague Zoo within one year is an exceptional event and testifies to the fact that one of the fundamental conditions for a thriving breeding population is to ensure an appropriate and safe space.

Slonice Tamara porodila