Sydney's miracle baby elephant doing well

Sydney - The baby elephant that fooled vets at Sydney's Taronga Zoo into thinking he had died in his mother's womb was showing all the vital signs of life Thursday. The 116-kilogram calf that science said could never be born alive was suckling from mother Porntip, putting on weight and standing on his own four legs.

"Despite no vital signs of life for several days, we now have obviously a healthy little calf on the ground," zoo director Cameron Kerr told reporters.

The textbooks said a live birth after a nine-day labor was impossible - especially since, with the fetus upside down, it would inevitably be a difficult breech birth.

"There is no record anywhere else in the world - of the 10,000 births, there is no recording - of a labor that has gone this long," Kerr said. "It's a bit unbelievable for everyone, to be honest."

Vets explained the inexplicable by saying the calf had lapsed into a coma during labor, so there was no heartbeat, no movement in the womb and no evidence of life.

"This little calf has been through an incredibly tough time," Kerr said.

It is Taronga's second birth in a captive breeding program that began four years ago when Asian elephants were brought in from Thailand.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/313510,sydneys-miracle-baby-elephant-doing-well.html.