Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 16, 1990 TAG: 9004160016
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SYRACUSE, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium
The 18-year-old pachyderm has impregnated two females at the Burnet Park Zoo. Babe is expected to deliver her baby around the last week of April and Romani is due in July 1991.
That's earth-shaking news for the continent's zoos, where just 62 calves have ever been born in captivity. It's also a sign of promise for the 35,000 to 45,000 Asian elephants that remain in the wild as an endangered species.
To highlight the importance of the twin pregnancies, Jacksonville Zoological Park Director Dale Tuttle said there are only six other zoos with pregnant Asian elephants. An elephant's pregnancy lasts 22 months.
Only 14 of the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums' approximately 150-member zoos have the facilities to breed Asian elephants, said Tuttle, coordinator of the AAZPA's Species Survival Plan for Asian elephants.
The zoo decided in 1979 that it wanted to breed elephants, said Burnet Park curator Don Moore. It began by transforming the 350-square-foot indoor pen that housed its one elephant, Siri, into a spacious 3,200-square-foot indoor-outdoor living area with a breeding barn.
Romani was purchased in 1984 from a circus, which bought her from an elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka. Indy, also an ex-circus performer from Thailand, and Babe, a one-time gift to the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, came to Burnet Park in June 1985.
With dual pregnancies and a virile male to make it worthwhile, Burnet Park this year is spending $500,000 to thrust itself fully into elephant breeding. The money will be used to further enlarge and modify the zoo's elephant habitat.
Babe's calf, which will likely weigh about 200 pounds, will be the first one born at Burnet Park. So it's understandable the zoo - like a first-time parent - has been excited about the pregnancy.
by CNB