posted
CNN WASHINGTON (AP) -- What weighs 325 pounds and is new at the National Zoo? A newborn baby elephant.
The male calf, born Sunday afternoon, took its first steps shortly after birth, zoo officials said.
"We are all so excited," said National Zoo Director Dr. Lucy Spelman. "Very few elephant calves are born in zoos each year so this is a very special event."
For one thing, it is very difficult to mate females and bulls, because few zoos have males in captivity or the proper facilities for bulls.
The calf was conceived through artificial insemination, only the fifth such success in the world, Spelman said.
The baby was born to the youngest of the zoo's Asian elephants, 25-year-old Shanthi.
Elephants carry their young for 22 months and Shanthi had been expected to deliver in December.
Shanthi's first calf died at age 16 months of what was eventually identified as a herpes virus exclusive to elephants. Since then, methods of effective diagnosis and treatment have been developed.
"The zoo will take every measure it can to ensure the survival of this wonderful new arrival," said senior curator Dr. John Seidensticker.
There has been no decision on a name, officials said.
[ November 28, 2001: Message edited by: Malnurtured Snay ]
posted
Is this thread intended to reassure the virgin contingent on these Forums that if elephants in captivity can get laid, then maybe they can too? 8)
-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
-Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney, LeMans
Registered: Mar 1999
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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
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I really don't need the article for encouragement.. i could lose this virginity thing ive had going on for a while, ive just chosen not to.
-------------------- "Are you worried that your thoughts are not quite.. clear?"
Registered: Sep 2001
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[ November 28, 2001: Message edited by: Jay the Obscure ]
-------------------- Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. ~ohn Adams
Once again the Bush Administration is worse than I had imagined, even though I thought I had already taken account of the fact that the Bush administration is invariably worse than I can imagine. ~Brad DeLong
You're just babbling incoherently. ~C. Montgomery Burns
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
"I really don't need the article for encouragement.. i could lose this virginity thing ive had going on for a while, ive just chosen not to."
You lie.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
posted
Bah! We had one of these elephant-birth things here in St. Louis a few years back. They made a big deal of it then, too.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Just a small question: Why have you highlighted "To mate females" in that passage of text?
-------------------- "Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing. To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking: Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!"
The Battle of the Pelennor Fields.
Registered: Mar 2000
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-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
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