Baby Elephant Born at Disney World Animal Kingdom
Posted by Ashley McChesney on Fri, May 28, 2010 @ 10:45 AM
Weighing 288 pounds at birth, Luna is the fifth elephant born at Disney's Animal Kingdom. She joins the herd of thirteen, which now includes five males and eight females.
Luna's mother Donna is reportedly doing well after gaining more than 400 pounds during the 22-month gestation. Animal experts describe her as a model mother, taking excellent care of her newborn calf. Mother and child remain backstage while the calf becomes acclimated to other herd mates.
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 May 20th 2010 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.
This is the fifth elephant born at Disney's Animal Kingdom. In addition to Donna's first female calf, Nadirah, Tufani, a male, was born in 2003; Kianga, a female, was born in 2004; and Tsavo, the youngest male, joined the herd in 2008. All remain on the savannah at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
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