ZSL Whipsnade Zoo ZSL Whipsnade Zoo 2019

First (very cold) visit of the year yesterday. Saw both Wolverines as active as I have seen them for a while! Despite being cold the Zoo is such a nice place to spend on an winters afternoon.

Saw the banner about the new aquarium. I'll post a photo of it. The artist impression looks impressive!
 
Baby elephant was viewable from the outside if u peered thru the windows of the house. Loads of people did
 
Donna's baby has sadly had to be put to sleep

Sadly, an Asian elephant calf born at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo on Saturday has now been put to sleep, following a four-day-long, herculean effort by our keepers and veterinary team to save her.

The female calf, born to first-time mum Donna on Saturday 12 January, had a number of seizures and was also struggling to suckle milk from her mother.

Vets, nurses and keepers did everything they could to build up the calf’s strength during her first few days, including bottle and tube feeding her both Donna’s milk and specially designed formula, and administering fluids and plasma containing antibodies from other elephants intravenously. For four days, zookeepers did not leave the calf’s side, staying overnight in the Zoo to ensure she remained warm and fed. As time went on, however, it became clear her condition was not improving and the calf was becoming weaker, not stronger. The only kind option was to put the calf to sleep.

Following the difficult birth, the calf’s mum Donna has still not passed her placenta, so vets and keepers are continuing to use a number of different treatments to help this along.

Our teams are understandably upset by this heart-breaking turn of events, and are focussing their efforts on caring for Donna and the rest of the Asian elephant herd.
 
MichaelKCT said:
Donna's baby has sadly had to be put to sleep

Sadly, an Asian elephant calf born at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo on Saturday has now been put to sleep, following a four-day-long, herculean effort by our keepers and veterinary team to save her.

The female calf, born to first-time mum Donna on Saturday 12 January, had a number of seizures and was also struggling to suckle milk from her mother.

Vets, nurses and keepers did everything they could to build up the calf’s strength during her first few days, including bottle and tube feeding her both Donna’s milk and specially designed formula, and administering fluids and plasma containing antibodies from other elephants intravenously. For four days, zookeepers did not leave the calf’s side, staying overnight in the Zoo to ensure she remained warm and fed. As time went on, however, it became clear her condition was not improving and the calf was becoming weaker, not stronger. The only kind option was to put the calf to sleep.

Following the difficult birth, the calf’s mum Donna has still not passed her placenta, so vets and keepers are continuing to use a number of different treatments to help this along.

Our teams are understandably upset by this heart-breaking turn of events, and are focussing their efforts on caring for Donna and the rest of the Asian elephant herd.
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Absolutely heartbreaking
 
Horrible.

If the zoo were to lose Donna as well I really do fear for the long term viability of this group if new blood was not brought in. Under these circumstances you’d have one proven,viable cow (Karishma) as the others are either too young (Elizabeth) or retired/unable (Kaylee/Lucha).

Of course, there is another, rather extreme, suggestion. Could ZSL go into African elephants if pursuing the Asian breeding program simply wasn’t viable? Certainly, I believe, an opportunity was missed when they euthanised their African forest bull Jumbo.
 
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Do hope Donna makes a full recovery, But this begs the question as too should she have been allowed to get pregnant when not yet fully grown! Could this difficult bird be down to her small size and her calf unable to pass through the birth cannal and so suffered brain damage! Very disappointed for the herd as no other calf’s expected in the near future and so now they need to decide what to do next ...
 
I doubt age has anything to do with it. Many cows in Europe over the past few years have had their first calf between the ages of 6 and 8.

Donna is around 9.5 years old, an ideal age for a first calf.
 
Maybe age is she at a good age, but her size is tiny in comparison to the adult in herd and let’s hope this difficult birth hasn’t damaged her for future calfs ...
 
Rosie183 said:
Do hope Donna makes a full recovery, But this begs the question as too should she have been allowed to get pregnant when not yet fully grown! Could this difficult bird be down to her small size and her calf unable to pass through the birth cannal and so suffered brain damage! Very disappointed for the herd as no other calf’s expected in the near future and so now they need to decide what to do next ...
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I was told by a keeper in late August that Karishma could be pregnant but that is a could...
 
robert everett said:
I was told by a keeper in late August that Karishma could be pregnant but that is a could...
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Excellent news if true , but still that’s a 2020 baby at the earliest.... what till then especially now they have more space with Mya gone and Sam will be leaving soon.. so only Elizabeth is left x
 
Rosie183 said:
Excellent news if true , but still that’s a 2020 baby at the earliest.... what till then especially now they have more space with Mya gone and Sam will be leaving soon.. so only Elizabeth is left x
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I guess Elephant breeding is a very slow process which means building a herd up takes years and years
 
Rosie183 said:
Sam will be leaving soon.. so only Elizabeth is left x
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Why would you think Sam be leaving soon? He's only four and a half years old, and considering that the herd likely won't be growing for a few years yet, I don't see any reason why they would be in a rush to send him out, especially since he has Emmet to spar with if he gets too rowdy for the cows at times.
 
May the calf rest in peace, and may the zoo weather the storm of the predicted animal rights outrage, boycotts and protests.
 
Very sad of course. I thought there might be a problem here as the zoo didn't make any announcement until now regarding this birth. As to Donna's age and size, I believe young (and small) females of this age do breed in the wild like this also, perhaps a naturally -designed insurance to ease birth before the pelvic bones are fused solidly together, which is why adult unbred cows sometimes have considerable difficulty. It doesn't exactly explain the cause of the problems here, except to say it was a difficult birth, maybe they are not known yet, though seems to highlight how Asian elephant breeding in zoos seems so often to produce an unhappy outcome, including all the EEHV deaths. I hope Donna makes a safe recovery...
 
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