Newborn elephant takes wobbly first steps at zoo
The Indian elephant calf joins the largest herd in a European zoo at Pairi Daiza in Belgium.
This striking footage shows a newborn Indian elephant’s first tentative steps.
The female calf was born at Pairi Daiza, a zoo in Brugette in Belgium, at the weekend.
“She’s very, very strong,” said Rob Conachie, the zoo’s head of elephants. “She was up on her feet extremely quickly.”
The baby has been born into the largest elephant herd in a European zoo – she swells the ranks at Pairi Daiza to 22, of which 20 are Asian and two African.
“This is another step forward in protecting an endangered species,” said Mr Conachie.
“There are only 38,000 of these fantastic elephants left in the wild today so every one that we breed, especially females, are critically important.”
Indian elephants are a subspecies of Asian elephants and have been listed as endangered since 1986.
