From rxpgnews.com
Thailand's first artificially inseminated elephant born
By DPA,
Mar 9, 2007 - 1:51:00 PM
Bangkok, March 9 - Thai scientists announced the birth of the kingdom's first artificially inseminated elephant, a healthy 100 kg male.
The baby pachyderm was born at 9.30 p.m. Wednesday at the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre in Lamphang, 500 km north of Bangkok, said the centre's chief veterinarian Sittidej Mahasawangkul Thursday.
'This is the first successful elephant birth by artificial insemination in Thailand, although not the first in the world,' said Sittidej in a telephone interview with DPA.
The mother elephant was artificially inseminated at the centre on June 10 last year.
'This experiment was carried out with several goals in mind, including increasing the elephant population, a means of improving the gene pool among our existing elephant population and for the sake of research,' said Sittidej.
Not everyone was overjoyed with the artificial birth.
'Why do we need this?' said Soraida Salwala, head of the Friends of Thai Elephants Foundation. 'This will serve whose purpose when we have so many elephant bulls and cows in the country that can procreate naturally?' she asked.
Soraida expressed fears that unscrupulous animal traders would in the future register wild baby pachyderms as the result of artificial insemination, which would allow them to be exported to zoos abroad.
Under Thai laws, domesticated elephants may be exported but not those born in the wild.
There are approximately 5,000 elephants in Thailand, half of which are wild.
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