Elephants Elephants - Wildpro - Twycross Zoo

130 kg, the last having a survival rate of only 20%. Whalley (1994) carried out
a survey on 32 Asian elephant births from 22 collections and found that calf
weight varied from 80-172 kg with a mean of 116kg. However, with these
data, there is absolutely no correlation between birth weight and gestation
period.
Prior to labour females are usually restless and with increased urination and
defecation. There is a progesterone drop 48 hours prior to calving. The
mucous plug is passed (which is not necessarily obvious) followed by the
rupture of foetal membranes and a bulge appears under the tail i.e. in the
urogenital canal. In normal calving the birth should take place within two
hours of membrane rupture. However, there are exceptions to this. A
Twycross Zoo female gave birth 42 hours after rupture to a live calf (John Ray,
pers. comm.) and a survey of 15 live born young in European collections
showed a range of 0.25 - 55.5 hours, but 75 % were born within two hours. In
the one case of 55.5 hours with a live born young the female was
hypocalcaemic. In Pinnawela parturition time is given as 90 minutes (Dastig
2002).
All caesarean operations on elephants have resulted in the loss of the mother
and are therefore not recommended with out extreme caution, (Schaftenaar et
al 2001) and see Section 3.15.2 on parturition. Port Lympne Zoo carried out a
caesarean on a female whose calf had been dead in utero for some two months
but she unfortunately died (Whalley 1994) and the current recommendation is
to leave dead calves in utero and they will be eventually passed, although this
may take some months (Flach, pers comm.).
Calves can be born head or tail first; all 24 calves at the Metro Washington
Park Zoo were born tail first (Mellen and Keele 1994), and this is considered
the most common presentation. Mellen also records the mother scuffing the
floor with her front feet next to the recumbent calf, similar behaviour to that
observed in the wild (Moss 1988). The placenta is passed some 5-7 hours after
the birth (Mellen and Keele 1994), and the European survey give a range of 3-
40 hours with 87% of the sample having passed the placenta 10 hours after
birth. The calf is helped to stand by the mother and other females and usually
stands within 30 minutes with a range of 8-60 minutes. Suckling usually
occurs within three to five hours after birth although it can be as much as 10 or
even 18 hours (Flügger et al 2001). Meconium is passed anything from four
minutes to three hours after birth.
Although the mortality of captive born elephants in European and North
American (N.A.) Zoos tends to be high, this is not the case for African
elephants born in Europe (see Section 3.7.2). Most of the data on this subject
comes from Asian elephants. Keele analysed data from all Asian elephant
births from N.A. up until 1996 (Keele 1996). Of those born between 1962 and
1996, animals that were stillborn or died on the day of birth comprised 20% of
the total. Taking data from 1986-1996 this statistic actually increased to 25%.
Using data from European collections and comparing it to South Asian
animals a stillbirth rate of 16.5% was found in Europe, against a rate of 4%
from working animals in Burma (Myanmar) (Kurt and Khyne U Mar 1996).
Of 141 Asiatic calves born in Europe up to 1996, 37% died within their first
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