Zoo's elephant is pregnant

By Sharon Asplin

AN ELEPHANT at Colchester Zoo has become pregnant, it has been announced.

Confirmation of Zola the African elephant's pregnancy was established by hormone analysis carried out by the German Primate Research Centre in Gottingen.

Keepers at Colchester Zoo had believed she was pregnant as she had not been ovulating for some months.

The baby is likely to be born around February or March 2008 as African elephants have a gestation of 22 months, the longest of any land mammal, after which a single calf is born.

African elephants are the largest land mammal and females way up to 2.7 tonnes.

Keepers will closely monitor Zola as this is her second pregnancy and unfortunately, although reaching full term with her previous calf, Zola shut her birthing process down and retained the calf so it could not be born alive.

Meanwhile, a giraffe at the zoo has died after a battle with serious health problems.

The zoos veterinary consultant, John Lewis, said that Neo the giraffe had faced many difficulties since birth.

“As a calf, Neo was rejected by his mother and had to be hand reared by keeping staff. Although this procedure saved his life, it left him with a less than perfect leg bone conformation and as a result he has required a considerable amount of veterinary attention since arriving at Colchester Zoo.

“Unfortunately as Neo has grown and put on weight his poor conformation has resulted in excessive stress on some of his joints - especially his hips - and in the past two months this situation has worsened considerably.”

Anthony Tropeano, curator at Colchester Zoo said: “Very sadly Neo's condition had worsened and he was in a lot of pain.

“For his welfare we were left with no option but to relieve him of his suffering. Neo was a very popular Giraffe and will be sorely missed by staff and visitors.”