This striking footage shows a newborn Indian elephant’s first tentative steps.
The female calf was born at Pairi Daiza, a zoo in Brunette in Belgium, at the weekend.
Footage shows the youngster tentatively getting to her feet and attempting a few wobbly first steps, aided by her doting mother, Farina.
“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.
She is the second baby elephant born at the zoo so far this year and is already out and about with the rest of the herd.
“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 everyone that we breed, especially females, is critically important.”
Pairi Daiza is helping with research to find cures for deadly diseases affecting populations, including elephant herpes.
Indian elephants are a subspecies of Asian elephants and have been listed as endangered since 1986.
By: irishnews.com
