Zoo's Baby Elephant Turns 1
Elephant Has Beaten Odds
POSTED: 11:18 a.m. EDT September 12, 2000
PITTSBURGH -- Last year, Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium officials kept their fingers crossed when a female African elephant
was born.
That elephant, born in September 1999, has beaten the odds
against elephant calves born in captivity by surviving this long.
Zoo president Barbara Baker said the zoo will recognize the
milestone with an elephant appreciation day on Sunday.
Baker said this is the first time in 15 years that an African
elephant born in captivity has survived its first year.
See the baby elephant on The Discovery Channel's Web cams of the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium's
indoor elephant quarters or in the outdoor African Savanna environment.
Mike Keele, who is in charge of elephants at the Oregon Zoo in
Portland and head of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's
elephant breeding program, said that experts don't know why baby
elephants die so often.
He said that other zoos across the country are monitoring Pittsburgh's
success.
Another elephant at the zoo is pregnant. That elephant gave birth to a stillborn male calf in 1998.
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