Health condition of elephant cow Heri at Basel Zoo is stable
Published: Thursday, Dec 21st 2023, 13:20
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The state of health of the pregnant elephant cow Heri at Basel Zoo has stabilized in recent days. However, the zoo still assumes that her calf has most likely died, as it announced on Thursday.
She is eating better again and no longer has a fever. However, the veterinary and care team is continuing to treat Heri intensively. The development of a so-called stone fetus would be desirable, as stated in the press release. This means that the fetus is encapsulated and mummified by the body.
In elephants, a drupe can remain in the mother's body for months without any symptoms, according to Basel Zoo. However, it is also conceivable that the calf will be expelled as a whole or in individual parts over the next few months.
Basel Zoo announced a week ago that the 47-year-old African elephant cow Heri is in a critical condition and the calf may have died in the womb.
The birth was planned for the end of 2023 or beginning of 2024. It would have been the first elephant offspring after 31 years in Basel. The father of the presumably dead foetus is the bull elephant Tusker, who had to be put down in August this year due to tuberculosis.
©Keystone/SDA
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