Elephant To Give Birth On Internet

Zurich's zoo will broadcast an elephant birth live on the Internet when Ceyla-Himali calves next month, the zoo said on Tuesday.

Two cameras will carry pictures of the event, which the zoo is calling an Internet premiere. Because the exact date is uncertain, the zoo will start carrying pictures soon on its website, http://www.zoo.ch.

Those who don't want to miss the event can leave an e-mail address or phone number where they can be contacted when the birth is getting under way. Once an elephant goes into labor, the birth can take place in a matter of minutes.

The zoo said it would use publicity surrounding the birth to draw attention to the plight of Asian elephants, whose numbers are sinking from the current figure of about 40,000 as people increasingly encroach on their natural habitat.

Ceyla-Himali has given birth before, to Xian in 1997.

James Doherty, general curator at the Bronx Zoo, said the Bronx Zoo sometimes videotapes animal births, but they wouldn’t broadcast an animal birth over the internet.

”You want the least amount of distraction. You don’t want that night to be any different than any other night for that female. You want her entire to attention to be focused on what’s happening, on giving birth, cleaning the baby off, getting the baby up and nursing,” Doherty explained to CBS.Com.

”We’re pretty conservative. We wait until the birth is over and then we’d do something. You could have visitors who saw the birth and come to the zoo and are disappointed," said Doherty. "One thing people don’t understand: they see a birth...and expect to see that baby elephant. It may be that the baby is doing well, but if the baby is born in December we may not exhibit until spring."

”Mother and baby always need time to bond with each other. So you like to let that happen in the place where the mother and baby sleep and eat with the least amount of distraction," Doherty said.

"I expect that the Zurich Zoo would have people there who the elephant knows and trust and the camera wouldn’t require much attention."

Doherty doesn’t think that filming an animal birth is an invasion of privacy.

He says they film animal births ”to increase our knowledge of the particular animal involved. If something goes wrong, we’re in a position to intervene."

"We are at a point now with our snow leopard. We can tell by the behavior of a pregnant snow leopard, that tonight is the night [she’ll give birth]."