Pregnant elephants

Apr 12th, 2006 by Accidental Thinker

I learned a fascinating piece of trivia yesterday. I bet you’ve just been dying to know why elephants in captivity have a difficult time giving birth. Friends, you need yearn for the answer no longer. I now possess the facts to set your inquisitive minds at ease.

Common sense would dictate that pregnancy in any species requires increased nutritional needs for the mother. She is, after all, feeding both herself and her unborn offspring. For years, zoos around the world have operated under this assumption, never having cause to question the accepted wisdom.

Except as it turns out, elephants don’t care one whit for common sense. Elephants, apparently, like to buck the trend. The problem for expectant elephants in captivity is that they have, with the best of intentions, been overfed. Their babies are simply too fat to be born in the usual way.

We have the fine specialists at Disney’s Animal Kingdom to thank for this discovery. They are now leading zoos around the world in live elephant births, so I’m told, thanks in large part to dietary adjustments which more closely resemble the intake of their gestating counterparts in the wild.

Someday, somewhere, at some cocktail party, I am SO going to impress someone with my knowledge of the nutritional requirements of the pregnant pachyderm.

Posted in Potpourri |

8 Responses to “Pregnant elephants”

on 12 Apr 2006 at 3:55 pm1lesser_lumpkin

Well I dont know about at any coctail parties but I’m impressed. And actually I have wondered that fairly recently as we just had a baby elephant in our local zoo die durring birth. Now I know the answer. How interesting.

The Lumpy
on 12 Apr 2006 at 6:05 pm2Chevy Rose

You just never cease to impress me, and I’ll use that info the next time I’m at a cocktail party…wink, wink.
on 13 Apr 2006 at 12:13 am3Jamie Dawn

I think it is also true that elephant expectant mothers aren’t the only expectant moms who are overfed.
I remember indulging in some extra gruel whilst I was prego, thinking that I was eating for two and could in fact really NEED that extra serving of berry cobbler.
on 13 Apr 2006 at 8:15 am4lz-blogger

And NOW thanks to you… so am I! ~ jb///
on 13 Apr 2006 at 12:07 pm5Jolynn

That is interesting! I’m glad I know this. I am now smarter for reading your blog, doesn’t that make you happy? Those poor elephants.
on 13 Apr 2006 at 12:24 pm6Mike ( ex scientia)

Well – they shouldn’t be over eating anyway. They’re already elephants. And that’s way bigger than beefy – and beefy isn’t good. Beefy is bigger than porked out. And porked out isn’t a good thing either. Right? 😉
on 13 Apr 2006 at 1:58 pm7Karin

I love when I can come to a blog and learn something…lol! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
on 14 Apr 2006 at 4:11 pm8Big_Dave_T

Aren’t elephants pregnant for a longer time before giving birth? So they have an excuse. They’re “eating for two” longer.

Thanks for reading my blog about faith. I read your’s here as well. We all need a little more God in our life. I’d like to take some refresher CCD classes someday.

I was waiting for some blogging about your trip to my home state (Michigan) but I never did see any.