New Arrival "Ganesh Vijay" at Twycross Zoo

G Lokey, on November 2, said:

There are five Asian elephants at the Zoo and this is the newest, a bull elephant, born 6.8.09. His mother, Noorjahan, was the zoo's first artificially inseminated (AI) elephant. The four adult elephants are all female and Ganesh is the third of the five to be "captive-born". In the wild bull elephants lead a solitary life and would not live with the females only joining the herd for mating. Rather than bring a bull to the Twycross herd it was decided to use the AI technique and experts flew in from Germany to inseminate Noorjahan with a sample taken from the bull elephant Emmett, at Whipsnade Zoo, and Ganesh Vijay is the result. He will suckle from his mother for about a year and then take solids such as vegetables, fruit and hay. When fully grown he will get through four bales of hay a day along with several buckets of fruit and vegetables with several gallons of water to wash it all down! If anyone is sufficiently interested in watching these wonderful animals at Twycross, get "Twycross Zoo" on the internet and you will find they have a live webcam!!!