UPDATE: Melbourne Zoo elephant calf Sanook died as a result of a tragic accident with one of his favourite toys, a tyre.
Melbourne Zoo Director, Kevin Tanner said closed-circuit television footage from Tuesday night showed he had choked.
“He was playing with a large suspended tyre in his barn during the early evening yesterday,’’ Mr Tanner said.
“The CCTV footage shows that at 7pm while playing with it, Sanook managed to manoeuvre the tyre in an unusual way that caused his head to become caught. This placed pressure on his neck and would have prevented him from breathing,’’ he said.
Preliminary post-mortem results confirmed the cause of death, Mr Tanner said.
The tyre was a favourite of the young zoo elephants, including Sanook, his sister Mali and brother Ongard.
Tyres were commonly used in zoos around the world as ‘‘an approved form of enrichment for elephants’’, a zoo statement said.
“This is a tragic accident that has left our keepers, vets and staff community devastated. To our knowledge no such accident has taken place in a zoo with elephants before,” Mr Tanner said.
The elephant enclosure has remained open.
Elephant observers at the zoo say Sanook’s mother Num-Oi appears ‘‘not herself’’ and a bit ‘‘bewildered’’ by the sudden disappearance of her calf.
Earlier the zoo had said Sanook was observed to be playing energetically and suckling from mother Num-Oi as usual on Tuesday.
Sanook was the baby of the elephant herd, the youngest of three calves born at the zoo. He would have been one year old in January. Elephant calves have a 22-month gestation period.
“I would like to thank the community for their condolences. I would also like to personally thank my staff at Melbourne Zoo for their professionalism in dealing with such a difficult situation,” Mr Tanner said.
