Animal Kingdom welcomes baby elephant

My favourite part of the Kilimanjaro Safari over at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is seeing the elephants -- especially when the ‘little ones’ are out and about and being mischievous. Last weekend 26 year old Mojo gave birth to a 327-pound male elephant -- the newest addition, who hasn’t been named yet, is the heaviest calf ever born at the park.

“African elephants are considered endangered and are challenging to breed,” according to Jackie Ogden, vice president of Disney’s Animal Programs. “This elephant birth is significant, not only for the herd and species, but also for the dedicated team of professionals who have been working with Moyo attentively for the past two years since the early stages of her pregnancy and round-the-clock since the elephant began to show signs of an imminent birth.”

The parks vets and elephant managers are said to be optimistic about the calf’s likelihood of survival. With assistance from the animal care team, the newborn became comfortable using his “newly-discovered” legs and began nursing successfully from his mother soon after birth. He is already feisty and very active.

Moyo became pregnant through artificial insemination in September 2006 and has received extensive pre-natal care throughout her pregnancy. She was encouraged to take more exercise, had regular ultrasounds, and the vets and elephant managers monitored her hormone levels on a daily basis to help them determine when she would give birth. When labour appeared imminent late last week the animal care team remained with her throughout the process until the male calf was born on Saturday evening at around 8:20 p.m.

This is the fourth elephant born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Tufani, who is Moyo’s first male calf, was born in 2003; Kianga, a female, was born in 2004; and Nadirah, the youngest female, joined the herd in 2005. All remain on the savannah at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom is part of a breeding program coordinated by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) that is focused on sustaining the elephant population in North America. AZA’s Elephant Species Survival Plan has called for a five-fold increase in African elephant reproduction efforts -- using both natural and artificial breeding methods -- in order to create a self-sustaining elephant population among North American zoos and wildlife centers.

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