Tigers are the world’s largest living cat. They mainly hunt at night and may eat up to 40kg of meat at a time!
Pathi Harn
Year: 10 March 2010 Sex: Male
Pathi Harn is the second Asian elephant calf to be born at Taronga Zoo. He was concieved by our female matriarch Porntip to Melbourne Zoo’s bull elephant - Bong Su through artificial insemination. This was performed by a world renowned team of elephant reproduction specialists from the Berlin Institute of Zoo Biology and Wildlife Research. This artificial insemination technique is vital to the genetic diversity and health of the future elephant herd to ensure that the calves are not all related.
Porntip was in labour for 8 days during which it was discovered through ultrasound technology that Pathi Harn was upside down making it impossible for him to proceed down the birth canal. This had never been witnessed or recorded before.
Towards the end of the protracted labour no signs of life from Pathi Harn were detected leading reproductive experts to conclude he had died in the womb.
Remarkably, in the early hours of the 10th March 2010 Porntip managed to turn Pathi Harn into a birthing position and against all odds give birth to him at 3.27am
For the first 24 hours he was very fragile and required a lot of help and therapy from keepers in assisting him to walk and suckle.
Pathi Harn weighed 116kg’s at birth and is getting bigger and stronger every day. He is playful, inquisitive and refuses to take a backward step when interacting with Luk Chai.
Young calves like Pathi Harn will ensure a future for elephants in Australia for generations to come, help to create awareness on issues threatening wild elephants and play a part in raising support and funding for conservation programs throughout Asia.
