This is the second death of a baby elephant at Zurich Zoo in less than five months. In early April, a newborn baby died a few hours after birth, succumbing to serious head injuries.
Born last February, little Umesh is in good health (archives).
–KEYSTONE / WALTER BIERI
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A baby elephant died at Zurich Zoo shortly after birth on Wednesday evening. The female Omysha had just given birth. The other elephants first helped the cub to stand up before trampling him to death for some reason.
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The birth went quite normally, zoo director Severin Dressen told the media on Thursday. The behavior of the group of elephants at the zoo seemed normal: the pachyderms leaned over the baby and tried to help him stand up, as their fellows do in the wild.
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Unexplained dynamics
A dynamic still unexplained then seized the group, during which the elephant calf was trampled to death. “We don’t know what triggered this reaction,” says the director.
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The group of elephants then left the lifeless cub with his mother so that she could say goodbye to him. It was his first baby calf.
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Omysha is in good health, says the zoo director, as are the rest of the group. “It’s a sad moment, but it is part of a natural development of things,” Severin Dressen emphasizes.
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Second case since April
This is the second death of a baby elephant in the zoo in less than five months. In early April, a baby elephant died a few hours after birth. He had died of serious head injuries, which occurred in unclear circumstances.
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