Melbourne Zoo is celebrating the birth of a baby elephant, with the new male calf arriving just days after another young elephant died in an accident at the zoo.
Asian elephant Dokkoon gave birth to her second calf at 2.40am on Sunday, after a 22-month pregnancy. Melbourne Zoo staff have described the 131-kilogram newborn as ”happy, healthy and strong”. Zookeepers used a harness to help the calf stand minutes after the birth, with the youngster reportedly running and standing on his back feet hours later.
Dokkoon is the first elephant in Australia to give birth for a second time. The baby is the brother of Melbourne Zoo’s first elephant calf, Mali, born in 2010. It comes after the accidental death of 11-month-old Sanook, who choked while playing with a toy tyre at the zoo last week. Melbourne Zoo director Kevin Tanner said the past week had been a ”roller-coaster of emotions” for the zoo community.
The zoo will give people the chance to vote on the calf’s name after it had supplied a list of words describing the newborn’s personality to the Thai consul-general, who will suggest a range of Thai names.
