Chester Zoo Baby Boom Continues With Elephant Calf Arrival

In the week where we have seen baby meerkats and a rare rhino arrive, Chester Zoo have announced a baby elephant calf has also been born.

The newborn male calf arrived overnight on Thursday to 35-year-old mum Thi Hi Way after an assumed gestation of 25 months. 

She stunned zoo keepers by giving birth an estimated three months past her due date. 

Despite the unusual circumstances, Thi gave birth to a healthy baby boy and keepers at the zoo say both mum and calf, who is yet to be named, are doing very well.

It is also a huge boost to a breeding programme of the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums. 

Asian elephants are listed as endangered as they are threatened by habitat loss, poaching, disease and direct conflict with humans.

Mike Jordan, Chester Zoo’s Collections Director, said:

“Thi is a wonderful matriarch to our family herd and a really experienced mum. She has successfully given birth to seven calves before, but this time around circumstances were really quite astonishing.

“We believed Thi had exceeded her normal gestation period, which we were monitoring closely. Her hormone levels, behaviour and drop in weight gave us every indication that she may have been resorbing the calf – a natural process that some elephants experience.

“However, nature always has that incredible ability to surprise you and that was certainly the case when we came in yesterday morning. The new youngster was up on his feet, suckling from mum and bonding closely with the rest of the family herd, including one-year-old calves, Indali and Aayu. It’s truly magnificent to witness.”

Zoo conservationists have been operating in India for more than twelve years, preventing extinction in the wild by utilising the skills and knowledge developed working with the herd in Chester.

A major Chester Zoo project in Assam, northern India, has successfully eliminated conflict between local communities and the nearby Asian elephant population, offering a blueprint for the future conservation of the species.

Meanwhile, scientists at the zoo are leading the global fight to find a cure for a deadly disease which is threatening Asian elephants globally, in zoos and the wild.

There is currently no cure for elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus, also known as EEHV, but Chester Zoo researchers are leading the fight to produce a vaccine, thanks in part to more than £150,000 in donations from the public as part of a major Never Forget fundraising campaign.

Chester Zoo’s elephant house is open as normal.