Special birthday for a special 'girl'

ICHIHARA, Chiba Prefecture--Like any new mother, Pooly had to adjust to having a newborn.

Yumeka, an Asian elephant calf, plays with her mother. (THE ASAHI SHIMBUN)

But what makes her situation unique is that Yumeka, her "daughter," is only the second Asian elephant to be born in this country. The 600-kilogram calf celebrated her first birthday Saturday.

Yumeka, one of nine elephants at the Ichihara Elephant Kingdom, is special for another reason. She is apparently the first pachyderm raised in captivity in Japan to have been breast-fed.

On a good day, she can be seen circling her mother's trunk, while having her face and tummy rubbed.

But things were not always so cozy for Pooly and Yumeka, who now stands about 1.2 meters tall. At one point, Pooly tried to ram the calf.

According to one expert at the Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo, elephants normally learn how to raise offspring through living in herds. In captivity, they lack that chance to learn, and often confuse their offspring with foreign objects.

At Kobe Oji Zoo in Kobe, home to the first and third Asian elephant calves born in captivity in Japan, officials had to separate the mother and raise the calves using feeding bottles.

But after a Thai veterinarian at the Ichihara Elephant Kingdom calmed Pooly, the zookeepers decided on a different approach.

They first fed Yumeka with Pooly's milk using a bottle, and then proceeded to lure the calf to the mother by moistening the mother's teat with milk.

Three hours after the delivery, Yumeka was being breast-fed. The mother apparently was soothed by the suckling.

This triumph was largely due to the efforts of Daeng Anantawong, 44, and other elephant handlers from Thailand.

To help the mother learn how to raise the calf, Daeng moved into a room above the elephants' pen and kept watch over the pair. Whenever the calf appeared in danger, Daeng would prod Pooly with a stick.

"Yumeka has yet to meet other elephants. Eventually, we hope to change that," said Sayuri Sakamoto, head of the Elephant Kingdom.

The zoo's success in breast-feeding the calf "is significant from the standpoint of protecting Asian elephants, which are in danger of extinction," said Osamu Doi, a professor of biology at Gifu University and expert on elephant breeding.(IHT/Asahi: May 8,2008)