Elephant born after artificial insemination

An artificially-inseminated elephant has given birth in Thailand to a ’bouncing baby boy’, a first in Asia that could be a crucial step in conserving the endangered species.

The baby Asian elephant was born late yesterday at the Elephant Hospital at the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre in the northern Thai town of Lampang, said Sitthidej Mahasawangkul, head of the hospital.

The 100-kilogramme male calf was healthy and could walk immediately, he said.

The mother was also doing well, Sitthidej said.

“This is the first time that artificial insemination has been successfully carried out in Thailand and in Asia,” he said. “We hope this will help increase the elephant population in Thailand, which has been declining for the several decades.”

An Asian elephant impregnated through a similar method by German veterinarians gave birth in Israel in December to what was the 11th Asian elephant to be born using this method, according to Israeli news reports at the time.

Asian elephants are an endangered species, with only between 34,000 and 54,000 believed to be alive in the wild, according to scientists.

Sittidej has said that Thai veterinarians were attempting to develop a technique that would enable them to artificially inseminate elephants using frozen sperm, which lasts for 20 years. That would give them greater flexibility in their efforts to increase the population of Asian elephants, he said.