Baby elephant milk feeding

Milk Makes The Elephant Go Round

When baby elephants are born, they need to get up onto all four feet as quickly as possible so to have that first drink of Mom’s milk, and avoid tempting predators with the smell of new placenta.

The longer they take to stand upright and keep those shaky little waif limbs firm on their new planet, the scarier it gets for mother and child. Baby needs its milk and will stay beside Mom for years, drinking milk from her teat for somewhere between four to five years old. Sometimes even longer, sometimes a little less.

The mother elephant will do everything she can to help her calf suckle from her, moving her front leg forward to make her teat easily accessible to the baby who wraps its little mouth around the teat and draws out the essential liquid.

This is mimicked with orphan calves as they suckle from the milk bottles given to them around the clock, each day, by their dedicated carers. Just as the calf would touch its mother’s underside or body with its enquiring trunk, communicating through touch, and no doubt receiving comfort from the closeness and intimacy, so too will a calf, especially younger ones, touch their carer’s mouth or face while drinking from the bottle.

It’s very difficult to escape the persistent snaking trunk of a suckling calf. Sometimes a carer will blow into the calf’s trunk and you can feel the heat from the long probiscis emanating off it. These moments are incredibly tender and often Baby will close its eyes while drinking, completely in the moment of love, nourishment and support between it and its mother, whether human or elephant.

Herman and his zebra friend.

One bottle of milk costs $18 – you can donate a bottle to Khanyisa through our GlobalGiving Campaign!

In addition to receiving Mom’s milk, the new calf receives colostrum – that special ingredient produced in the breast fluid of an elephant mother before she releases breast milk. It contains high levels of antibodies, immune cells and growth hormones and is extremely nutritious and essential in allowing a newborn to get off to a good start.

It’s likely that Khanyisa received her dose of colostrum before being caught in the snare and separated from her mother at four months old. Not all elephant orphans, if abandoned early in their lives, are that lucky.

To keep the orphans healing well, growing strong and roaming energetically, we need to provide them with the energy to do so.

When they first arrive at HERD, milk is an essential form of sustenance, giving the calf what their mother is not around to provide. But the act of feeding the baby is also an intense bonding experience for the very sensitive and often traumatised young animals.

What is it like to feed a baby elephant a milk bottle, besides ticklish? For one, incredibly rewarding, but also challenging, serious, humorous and endearing and expensive. Just like breastfeeding or giving a human baby formula, the process isn’t just a nice-to-do, it’s vital for the survival of your newborn.

Khensani getting ready to feed Khanyisa her milk bottle, with Tokwe keeping a close eye.

If Baby is feeling a little under the weather or temperamental, and doesn’t take the bottle, it isn’t as simple a situation as a human adult missing lunch… Babies of all species need extra energy and nutrition to develop those longer legs and bigger brains that will see them through life in their respective wildernesses.

A baby elephant’s milk formulation is exceptionally delicate and needs frequent adjustment, with extra nutritional supplements as they grow, as their mother’s milk would change naturally through the weaning stages and evolving needs. This is a difficult case of trial and error as an error can lead to serious consequences, and since each elephant is different, especially orphans and trauma victims, there is no “one size fits all” model.

What works for one elephant at a certain age doesn’t necessarily work for another.

The gut of a baby elephant is also extremely sensitive. When an orphan has diarrhea, it has a ripple effect. It starts by impacting their gut lining, which in turn changes their energy levels and affects their emotional wellbeing. They can move from hero to zero in a short period. Daily records of their feeding and bathroom habits are essential to monitor whether they are excreting or urinating more than what they take in. Like human babies, they are very fragile and can quickly dehydrate.

We consult with our experts and friends in rehabilitation often regarding the orphans’ milk formula and their ever-changing needs. Sometimes the damage to the calf, in the case of Fenya, cannot be rectified by milk, no matter how many extra nutrients are added to the mixture.

Each day, several times a day, our carers take to the orphanage kitchen to mix up Khanyisa’s milk bottles, adding the oil and protein she needs to the blend. As the seasons change, and the bush becomes drier now as we enter winter in the reserve, we have increased her milk amounts to supplement the decrease in vegetation she is able to graze on.

Carer Herman, one of Khanyisa’s favourite carers

The females of the Jabulani herd are not lactating – they are on contraception, since it is not part of our objectives to reed with the rescued herd until they are able to be released into a large and safe enough reserve without a tourism or human presence. They are so used to people and pose a risk to human-elephant conflict and greater chances of poaching due to familiarity. Finding and affording such land in South Africa, where overpopulation, poaching and habitat loss and destruction is prevalent, is incredibly difficult.

Even though the Jabulani females are not producing milk, many of them welcome and encourage Khanyisa to suckle from them – sucking on their teats is such a natural impulse for the calf and for her adoptive mothers and allomothers. Lundi, Bubi and Tokwe were all greatly efficient at this, but sweet Limpopo struggled and still has some things to learn about motherhood.

Khanyisa stopped suckling from the females for several months, but has started to do so again recently now that the bush has started to dry and change again… As a result we increased her milk intake – slowly, so not to bring on diarrhea.

Khanyisa suckling Bubi

As she approaches two years of age (in September 2021), Khanyisa no longer receives what we politely christened as “Shit Shakes”, dung mixed with milk, oil and water, as she is developing her own digestive bacteria. But for the first year of her life, she received this essential addition frequently while she started to eat more solids.

The purpose of dung in the diet of young elephants (known as “coprophagia”) is to provide essential bacteria that assists the calf in digesting the vegetation that they eat – bacteria that they are not able to produce when they are so young. The bacteria helps to break down plant matter in their intestines and helps to boost not only digestion but also the immune system.

In this case, the Jabulani herd was able to help! The feces of the older members of the herd were delivered to a growing Khanyisa – fresh, raw and ready, either in a shake or as a ball to nibble on.

Life After Milk

At HERD, we wean orphan calves after four to five years and recently did so with an orphan elephant, Timisa who had been receiving milk in a bucket with pellets until recently. This was supplemented by bana grass, branches, lucerne, marulas when in season and vegetables, which the older elephants in the rescued herd receive too.

Timisa the Courageous

When Timisa arrived in 2016 after being rescued, she was fortunately already feeding herself on solids, was a keen eater and drank sufficient water. After her rehabilitation, we introduced her to the Jabulani herd and she instantly tried feeding from both Tokwe and Lundi a few times (although both of the female’s babies were older, we thought they may well still have a bit of milk left in them). We closely monitored Timisa, as elephant calves are prone to glycaemia, but she continued to thrive with her new herd.

Kind Kumbura

Getting Kumbura to eat after her rescue and during her rehabilitation was not easy. She didn’t like the milk formula, and none of the females in the Jabulani herd were willing to feed her. We truly were not sure whether she would survive. Every day was of the utmost importance in getting her to drink, getting her to feel calm and safe, getting her strong and healthy again.

Winning over her trust was vital to her recovery. Her human carers remained patient, hopeful, and continued to give her all the care and love that she needed. We fed her any nutritious foods that she would eat – which included her favourites, apples and vegetables.

Kumbura, the smallest of the group, with Mombo, Tokwe and Limpopo, in 2012

We believe a key reason that Kumbura pulled through was due to the comfort she received from the elephants in the herd – especially Lundi and Tokwe, who adopted her as their own, and her gentle guardian, Sebakwe.

Milk remains a constant and vital part of life for Khanyisa now.

Heading out into the bush to give her milk bottles several times a day is a continual part of parenthood for our carers. Khanyisa certainly has her favourites when it comes to receiving milk bottles and won’t just take from anyone – she needs to know, trust and love her provider. Milk really is something so essential in our daily lives and the journey of orphan calves. It is a job, a connection, and life.

Herman, Khanyisa and Lammie during a morning bottle feed in 2020

The funds raised through our valued fosters and donors go towards the provision of the orphans’ essential milk bottles.

We are so grateful for the support from people around the world who enable us to provide orphans like Khanyisa with the nutrition and care they need to keep growing into strong, healthy elephants, with an adoptive herd of their own.

One bottle of milk costs $18 – you can donate a bottle to Khanyisa through our GlobalGiving Campaign!

The Miracle of a Newborn Elephant in the Kruger National Park

It’s always a wonderful celebration when an elephant is born at Tintswalo Safari Lodge.

Not just because elephants are often the victims of poaching, and we need to treasure each animal; it’s just wonderful to watch a baby elephant begin its life in the bush, and observe how the herd receives the new addition to the family.

This month, while on a safari game drive, we were privileged to stumble upon a newborn elephant in the Manyeleti, and we watched in amazement at the way the baby was treated by the rest of the herd. We witnessed the entire mood of the herd change, as the rest of the elephants took the young calf on as their own.

Of course, the calf was quite obviously the apple of his mother’s eye. She simply could not stop touching him with her trunk as he craned his head upward and suckled her gently.

The Coming of Age of a Baby Elephant

Baby elephants will stay very close to their mothers for the first couple of months of their lives.

The calves drink their mother’s milk for about two years, sometimes longer, and they can drink up to three gallons of milk each day! At about four months old, they also begin eating plants, but they continue to need as much milk from their mother. Some elephants keep drinking milk for up to ten years!

A very young baby always travels under the mother’s belly, between her legs, to ensure its safety, and in order for the mother to assist overcoming obstacles, and to keep him cool. During normal activities, baby elephants are seldom more than one or two meters from an adult (the mother is always nearby) and they are constantly being touched as reassurance.

From a relatively early age, the other female elephants in the herd practise mothering or ‘nannying’, during which time they guide calves, assisting them over obstacles, teaching them what to eat (some calves even remove food from other elephants’ mouths to learn what to eat) and protecting them just like the mother does.

Trunks of fun

At first, baby elephants don’t really know what to do with their trunks. It’s amusing to watch as the calves swing them to and fro and sometimes even step on them. They will stick their trunk in their mouth just as a human baby might suck its thumb. With more than 50,000 individual muscle units in the trunk, it’s a complex skill to learn.

By about 6 to 8 months, calves begin learning to use their trunks to eat and drink. By the time they are a year old, they can control their trunks pretty well and, like adult elephants, use their trunks for grasping, eating, drinking, bathing.

Elephants usually figure out the trunk-drinking method by the time they’re one year old. As in all young mammals, elephants are born with a strong sucking reflex, which prompts them to drink from their mothers’ breast. And when a youngster is not feeding, it may suck its trunk for comfort.

They practise using their trunks by exploring their environment – touching fellow herd members, their surroundings and themselves. They must then master the use of their trunks for feeding.

Sometimes an elephant that appears to be sucking its trunk is actually using it to smell, placing the tip inside its mouth after touching or sniffing dung or urine to assess pheromones produced by other elephants.

Elephants learn to do all these important things in their first years in the herd, as they observe their mother, their nannies, and their fellow young siblings. Female elephants stay with the herd for life, while males leave to begin a solitary life at about 12 to 14 years of age.

The early stage of an elephant’s life is incredibly important, and the mothering and mentorship ensures that they grow up to become the best possible elephant they can be, to both survive and thrive in the wilderness.

The trunk is superfluous: how a newborn baby elephant is fed

06/19/2017 at 17:21 Moscow 4894

A long-awaited event in Moscow — a baby elephant was born to a pair of Asian elephants Pipita and Pamir. A newborn, by elephant standards, is tiny, but by human standards it is a real strong man: its weight is 90 kg! Waiting for the day "X" took 22 months - exactly how long the pregnancy lasts for elephants. The birth went without complications, and ten minutes after the birth, the baby jumped to his feet and reached for his mother for the first portion of milk. By the way, the tiny trunk does not take part in this process, milk from the mother's breast goes straight into the mouth.

Photo: Moscow Zoo.

After the appearance of a newborn in the family, the relationship between the elephants was rebuilt. The head of the family was removed from business: dad lives separately and can only see the heir through the bars. But the older sister Caprida shows an increased interest in her brother. She had not yet had to deal with little elephants, so at first she tried to grab him with her trunk and pull him up to her to take a closer look. But Pipit's mother was afraid that her daughter would harm the baby, and kept Capri at a distance from him. And sometimes she could even push her away if she began to bother too much. The older sister quickly realized that she would not be allowed to approach her brother with such methods. Therefore, she stopped being naughty and began to help her mother take care of the baby elephant.

By the way, the birth of Caprida herself 8 years ago was also met with applause. In that pregnancy, Pipita was distinguished by excessive modesty, which was used with might and main by her neighbor in the aviary (and presumably her sister, although their relationship has not been proven) - the elephant Prima. The insidious cohabitant got into the habit of stealing food from the future mother. Pipita grew thinner and sadder, but she did not have the courage to shame her neighbor. The employees of the Moscow Zoo intervened - they increased the portions of Pipita's breakfast and dinner, thereby restoring justice.

And when the elephant gave birth, the tiny girl literally sucked all the juice out of her. Even after the transition to the adult "table" Capri continued to drink mother's milk in such quantities that the elephant fell from her feet from fatigue. She was rapidly losing kilograms, the only thing that interested her was food. At some point, Pipita even began to take away food from her husband: she pushed her trunk through the bars and raked fruits and vegetables out of the male's room. Fortunately, the difficult period passed and the elephant was able to restore her strength.

Capri's relationship with her aunt also developed in an interesting way. The baby fell in love with Prima at first sight and from the very beginning tried to make friends with her. And she did it very touchingly: she ran after her, clung to her legs and even tried to suck her milk. Naturally, the aunt had no milk, she got angry and kicked the baby elephant with her foot. But Caprida continued to caress, and in the end, Prima relented and allowed her niece to do anything with her - cuddle, push, and even suck non-existent milk. Unfortunately, Prima died suddenly 3.5 years ago. Mom and daughter were left alone and sad for a long time.

Now all the female attention in the elephant den is once again directed to the newborn baby elephant. So far, there can be no talk of any educational moments, the boy is too small for this. The main function of the mother is to protect and feed him. So far, she's doing great.

Authors:

Elena Lelkova

Moscow

Published in the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" No. 27421 dated June 20, 2017

Newspaper headline: Mom - Pipita, sister - Caprida

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Mammal zoo: how, who and what feeds the cubs

This year, the Kaliningrad Zoo for the first time took part in…. WHO World Breastfeeding Support Week, which took place from 1 to 7 August. It would seem, what does the zoo have to do with breastfeeding? Yes, the most immediate! After all, babies of various types and calibers are regularly born here, and they all need one thing - proper nutrition. And more correctly than mother's milk, as you know, nothing has been invented yet. Of course, like people, animals also have all sorts of overlays, and then babies have to be fed artificially. About what newborn monkeys are fed, how they managed to teach a female giraffe to breastfeed and whose milk is equally suitable for both elephants and bison, the zoo staff told on a special excursion organized jointly with the clothing project for nursing mothers "UMKA wear" and the regional branch of the All-Russian Association Natural Feeding Consultants.

WHERE DOES THE PROBLEM OR REJECT KIDS COME FROM?

The life of animals in the zoo is very different from life in the wild, where refuseniks are rare. In captivity, especially if the zoo does not pay due attention to the conditions of keeping animals (allows closely related relationships, keeps animals in small enclosures, does not enrich the environment), their behavior may change. For example, they may intentionally kill their offspring (as a result of severe stress or inappropriate conditions of detention). Or, as an option, they do not show any interest in the offspring, do not express a desire to feed. In this case, if the baby is healthy, a decision can be made to artificially feed him.

HOW IS THE PROBLEM SOLVED?

Over the years of the zoo’s existence, everyone has been fed in it: from hares and squirrels, which were brought in large quantities by visitors, to mountain goats, cubs and monkeys.

Since artificial feeding cannot 100% replace mother's milk (with it, the cub receives vital enzymes - specific proteins that are present in all living cells and play the role of biological catalysts. Through them, genetic information is realized and all metabolic and energy processes in living organisms), ideally, it is desirable to give refuseniks to a foster mother, it can even be of a different kind. To do this, some zoos keep dogs - they feed wolf cubs (in 2012, in the Vladivostok zoo, a nulliparous dog fed a wolf cub (http://poisk-druga.ru/news/1612-sobaka-vykormila-volchonka.html)), tiger cubs ( in the zoo of the Chinese city of Changchut, a dog nursed two cubs (https://www.kp.ru/online/news/29701)), panthers (at the Belgrade Zoo a dog nursed a baby panther (https://www.kp.ru/online/news/29701)) and others. lynxes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32wrkHKN1ak)), raccoons (in April 2018, a cat started feeding newborn raccoons at the Vladivostok Zoo (http://vestiprim.ru/news/ptrnews/62547-v -zooparke-vladivostoka-koshka-vykormila-detenyshey-enota.htm...) and other animals.

If there is no foster mother, the “breadwinners” for the refuseniks are people – zoo employees.

In each case, feeding is preceded by a study of the quality of animal milk (composition, fat content, frequency, duration of feeding, etc.). This is necessary because these parameters vary greatly among mammals. A female bison, for example, feeds a cub every 1.5 hours; bunny hare - once every 3 days; the elephant feeds the cub with milk up to 2 years, the female orangutan - up to 4).

In the first 2-3 days, when the cub should receive colostrum from the mother, goat colostrum is used whenever possible. Colostrum contains proteins, vitamins, microelements and amino acids that "start" the gastrointestinal tract, help to get rid of the original feces and form the child's immunity. If it is not possible to obtain colostrum, the risk of infection of young animals with infectious diseases increases. That's why veterinarians and livestock specialists are especially looking forward to the baby's first ... feces.

After the first few days, refuse-bearing animals, especially the offspring of ungulates, can be fed with goat's milk - it is the most suitable for them. The milk of cows and horses is considered more "heavy".

For feeding other animals, dry cat and dog milk can be used, which contains the necessary vitamins and microelements. (A kangaroo cub, who miraculously survived after the death of his mother as a result of an attack by stray dogs, was fed with dry cat's milk in the Kaliningrad Zoo; raccoons were fed with dry milk of a dog.)

WHAT IS THE SITUATION IN THE ZOO NOW?

Employees of the zootechnical departments periodically feed the cubs, for some reason left without parental care, including those removed from the wild (for example, seal pups, which are found every spring in an emaciated state on the Baltic beaches).

However, artificial feeding creates a number of problems.

Among them - the formation of unnatural behavioral reactions due to communication with a person; defects in physical development, difficulty, and often the impossibility of introducing an artificial into the family / flock. The latter problem, of course, is not typical for solitary animals, for example, orangutan, anteater, pygmy hippopotamus, tiger.

However, these difficulties can be overcome; an artificial child has every chance to grow up healthy and join the team, provided that the process of artificial feeding was carried out correctly, and the physical development of the baby (physical development in animals is much more important than in humans!) was done as carefully and thoroughly as the organization of his nutrition.

KANGAROO

The Kaliningrad Zoo has been attacked by stray dogs twice in recent years. In 2014, as a result of such an attack, 5 animals died, including two pregnant females. One of the cubs fell, the second was saved. Veterinarians and livestock specialists came up with the idea to try to feed the baby artificially.

The difficulty of feeding a kangaroo lies in the peculiarities of the development of the fetus: it is born tiny, underdeveloped; moving to his mother in a bag on his stomach, he sticks to the nipple and lives for some time, continuing to represent one whole with his mother. The mother injects milk into the baby's mouth.

Kangaroo cubs do not have their own intestinal microflora; the kangaroo receives it only with mother's milk. Therefore, during feeding, in addition to milk, specialists had to give the cub probiotics and salt formulations to maintain the water-salt balance in the body.

SEALS

Pinnipeds do not have enzymes that break down carbohydrates, so there are no carbohydrates (lactose) in their milk. Accordingly, their cubs CANNOT be fed with the milk of other mammals because it contains lactose.

Therefore, seal pups are fed first with just a liquid (saline, saline), then a homogeneous mixture made from several varieties of fish, raw eggs, B vitamins mixed with water. The mixture is fed directly into the baby's stomach through a tube. The next step is to force-feed the seals with small pieces of fish in order to develop the swallowing reflex. The last step is feeding the whole fish.

LION RICHARD

Born in May 2016 to a pair of lions, Tisza and Boniface. Some time later, the veterinarians diagnosed the baby with beriberi, and the parents, due to their rather advanced age, behaved rather coolly with the cub. Richard was moved to a separate enclosure and given a 10-day course of vitamin B1 injections and calcium supplements. Up to 2 months, he was fed with milk, at the same time introducing complementary foods.

At the age of three months, the baby was sent to the zoo in Perm, where he was accompanied by a young lion from St. Petersburg. Now artificially fed Richard willingly contacts people and gets along well with a neighbor.

THE BEARS

Brown bear cubs in the zoo were often artificially fed. The nursing bear was briefly hidden from visitors. However, they were soon returned to the exposition, and the babies were transferred to artificial complementary foods.

Polar bears fed their offspring themselves. For this, special conditions had to be created - an analogue of a cave, where absolute silence and peace reign.

pygmy hippos

In the 70s. The Kaliningrad Zoo was the first to obtain offspring of this species. The cubs had to be fed artificially, because the mother did not want to feed them.

GIRAFFE SAFARI

Born November 14, 2017 to a female Willow. None of Willow's previous four cubs could be saved: they were either born dead or died quickly, because Willow did not want to feed them.

Medical training helped to solve this problem in behavior: long before the birth, Iva, who did not allow her to touch her stomach, was gently taught to touch: she was gently stroked with a ball on a long stick.

Another problem - the lack of a sucking reflex in a newborn giraffe - was solved thanks to the experience of the zoos in Krasnoyarsk and London: colleagues advised putting a hand on the baby's forehead before feeding.

ELEPHANT MARCH

She was born in March 1996 to the elephant Pregolya. Previous baby elephants born by Pregol did not survive. The same fate awaited Marta, if livestock specialists, literally risking their lives, immediately after the birth, did not distract the mother and take the baby away.

Such incorrect behavioral responses were due to the peculiarities of the social organization of elephants: they live in families consisting of several females of different ages. Younger females learn motherhood from older females caring for newborns. There was no one to learn motherhood from before: she was the only mother of Shandra.

Martha was fed formula milk. Since there was not enough fat content, they were supplemented with 40% cream (4 liters per day). Then they boiled milk porridges with ground oatmeal on cream, adding mashed bananas and apples.

Natalya Durov, the famous trainer of the Durov dynasty, who came to watch Martha in order to later take her to the circus, was fine with the fact that she never knew her mother and was fed by people - such animals in the circus are tamed and trained faster.

MONKEY

A large number of monkeys were kept in the Kaliningrad Zoo before the Tropical House was put into operation. The collection included all kinds of anthropoids, including gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees. Specialists had to artificially feed the cubs of chimpanzees and orangutans.

The female chimpanzee was born prematurely. Mother fell on the second day after birth. They reared the cub in the incubator. They were fed formula milk. In the children's dairy kitchen, the baby was specially prepared kefir, acidolact and cottage cheese.

Orangi Sipora and Badut entered the Kaliningrad Zoo at the age of 4 and 3 years. The zoo staff fed the cubs a lot, which as a result became completely tame, while losing their natural skills. The behavior of the animals was deformed, so when Sipora had a baby, she took him as a toy, injuring the newborn. The baby had to be separated from her parents and fed with mixtures.

BISON BOGDAN

A male bison was born on August 4, 2008 from an old female who died a day after giving birth. Since the calf was expected to become a sire when it grew older, the decision was made to try to save it by artificially feeding it. The livestock specialist of the Hoofed Animals Department Ekaterina Demidyuk was promised: if the calf survives, we will fulfill any wish. Catherine dreamed ... about porcupines. So porcupines and a bison-producer appeared in the Kaliningrad Zoo.

The female bison feeds the cub every 1.5 hours. Accordingly, the day of Ekaterina Demidyuk began at 4 in the morning (that's what she had to get up to prepare mixtures and be in time for the zoo for the first feeding of the baby) and ended at 11 pm.