Photo: Götz Berlik / Hagenbeck Zoo
Little big baby in the animal park Hagenbeck
This baby weighs more than 100 kilos and his mother had almost 24 months to tow - now it finally has a name!
Almost two years, exactly 688 days, everyone had been waiting for this birth at the Hagenbeck Zoo: that's how long the "pregnancy" of Elephant Lady Yashoda in Tierpark Hagenbeck lasted. Since the 13th of July the baby is here. Now it finally has a name: Anjuli. An Indian name, because of the elephant mother. He means "white, pure, knowing, beautiful, humble, auspicious".
About 100 kilos and a meter tall, the "little one" at birth was about. But as the pictures prove, the Baby-Fant is already very fidel. Sometimes looking for milk might be a bit unsteady on the legs, but all around, zoo veterinarian and groom say.
After the long gestation period , the birth then went very fast: it lasted only a few minutes, says veterinarian Michael Flügger the "Hamburger Abendblatt". "I got the call to get started at about two to four pm Ten minutes later, it was all over, the child is here, the mother is well." At 3:49 the mini-elephant was there. Mama Yashoda has already got the fifth offspring, the daddy's name is Gajendra.
With the birth the work for the elephant mother is far from over: Further two to three years (!!!) small elephants feed exclusively on mother's milk. Up to 20 kilos of breast milk sucks so a young elephant.
We wish Yashoda a good condition and only the best for both elephants!
© Photos: Götz Berlik
