Disney’s Animal Kingdom Has A New Baby Elephant
Fabulous news coming from Disney’s Animal Kingdom… we have a new baby elephant! 22-year-old elephant Donna gave birth to a 288-pound female calf late Thursday night after a 22-month gestation. Right now, baby and mom are in their backstage home, but in several weeks you can expect them to join the rest of the elephant herd on the Kilimanjaro Safaris. The new baby hasn’t bee named yet but is the second calf for Donna, who gave birth to a female calf, Nadirah, in 2005. She is the fifth elephant born at the theme park and this birth raises the number of elephants in the Disney’s Animal Kingdom herd to thirteen, including five males and eight females.
Elephant births are among the most amazing and complicated processes in the animal world. The animal care team at Disney has worked with Donna attentively throughout the course of her pregnancy and are very optimistic for the calf’s likelihood of survival. Both Donna and her calf are doing well.
Donna became pregnant through artificial insemination in July 2008 and received extensive pre-natal care throughout her pregnancy. In addition to regular ultrasounds, veterinarians and elephant managers monitored her hormone levels on a daily basis to help them determine when she would give birth. Labor appeared imminent Thursday night and the animal care team stayed with her to provide round-the-clock care until the female calf was born around 11:30 p.m.
Other elephant’s born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in addition to Donna’s first female calf, Nadirah are Tufani, a male, who was born in 2003; Kianga, a female, who was born in 2004; and Tsavo, the youngest male, who joined the herd in 2008. All remain on the savannah at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
