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205 pounds of cute

An African elephant gives birth at Lowry Park Zoo on Monday. The calf is the first African elephant to be born in the Tampa Bay area.

By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published October 19, 2005

[Lowry Park Zoo]

Lowry Park Zoo's baby elephant tests its legs Tuesday morning, one day after its birth. The mother and baby have passed an important hurdle, with the mother accepting the calf and allowing it to nurse. The calf does not yet have a name.

TAMPA - Calling a 205-pound baby a "bundle" of joy sounds like an understatement.

But that's how Lowry Park Zoo officials announced the birth this week of a baby male elephant - the first African elephant to be born in the Tampa Bay area.

"We like to pat ourselves on the back, but it's really a feather in the cap for the whole bay area," zoo veterinarian David Murphy said Tuesday.

Ellie, a 20-year-old African elephant, gave birth to the still-unnamed calf sometime before dawn on Monday. Zookeepers artificially inseminated Ellie in February 2004. The gestation period for elephants can last as long as 22 months.

Besides Ellie and her newborn calf, the zoo has two male elephants and two female elephants that range in age from 10 to 12 years old. Elephants don't reach maturity until between 13 and 15 years old, so mating with a male at the zoo wasn't an option for Ellie. The four other elephants were imported from Africa to Lowry Park in 2003. Ellie was born in Africa but came to the zoo from another U.S. park.

Murphy and the zoo staff prepared Ellie for becoming a first-time mom through training. Murphy said mother and baby have passed an important hurdle: Ellie accepted the calf as her baby and has allowed it to nurse.

The next major hurdle will be to reintroduce the pair to the other four elephants. Murphy said he's optimistic that will go well because the other elephants have experience around newborn elephants.

African elephants in the United States could disappear in the next 20 to 50 years, the zoo said. The breed is no longer self-sustaining, and reproduction has stalled.

In 2003, animal rights groups launched a legal battle over Lowry Park and the San Diego Zoo receiving permits to import elephants from Africa. They argued that zoos had limited space, and tourists could fly to Africa to see them in the wild. The groups tried unsuccessfully to have a judge delay the elephants' arrival.

That same year, Tampa police arrested three animal rights activists who paid to get into Lowry Park then staged a protest in the zoo's administrative offices over the plans to import elephants.

Ellie's pregnancy marked the beginning of what Lowry Park plans to be an elephant breeding program at the zoo.

Murphy said that Ellie and the baby could be on display to the public within a month.

"We're amazed at how phenomenally the two have done," he said. "Always with a newborn animal, there's always concerns. The further you get down the road, the older they get and the bigger and stronger they get, the more comfortable you are.

"But I don't think you ever stop worrying. Just like you don't stop worrying with your kids."

[Last modified October 19, 2005, 00:29:13]