You know how it is. Sometimes you just don’t feel like your lively self. You’re cranky and certainly not up to those daily meetings. You just have to take a week off.
With that in mind, the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium has cleared a few days off the schedule for its new elephant calf. The baby pachyderm, which turns 7 weeks old Tuesday, is teething “and is not herself,” zoo officials said.
The elephant, which was born May 31 and made its public debut July 7, will not be on exhibit through Friday at the least.
Once she is back to being her usual inquisitive, playful self, zoo visitors will again be able to view her and her elephant family through the windows at the Highland Park facility.
In the meantime, you also can follow updates on the zoo’s baby elephant blog, which is updated daily.
Zoo professionals are being careful with the still-unnamed baby as she was born prematurely, weighing about 180 pounds, making her tiny by elephant standards.
The offspring of Seeni, one of three elephants rescued from Botswana in 2011, gave birth a month early to the calf at the International Conservation Center in Somerset County. Seeni rejected her calf and has not produced any milk for her, forcing the zoo to hand-rear her and feed her using a bottle.
Willie Theison, elephant manager at the zoo and ICC, at the time called her “a tough little baby,” but he stressed that “the task of hand-rearing this baby is going to be a long process. With this baby we have to watch everything.”
Zoo President and CEO Barbara Baker said the first 90 days will be critical in the calf’s survival.
Despite the health concerns, “she’s feeding like crazy and doing very well,” Dr. Baker said early in the process. “She’s very feisty, energetic and she’s doing all the right things for a baby.”
The calf has learned how to use her trunk in the first week of life, when it normally takes about two weeks to a month for a baby to learn what to do with it. She’s even learned how to play with some toys, her favorite a big red ball she takes “all her anger out on,” Mr. Theison said.
Once she’s grown and shows stable health, the calf will be allowed to roam around with the other six elephants housed at the zoo. Dr. Baker said she would likely be knocked over by the much bigger elephants in the herd if she tried to interact with them now. They’ve met her already, though, shying away from her in confusion the first time they saw her.
“They’re slowly becoming more familiar,” Mr. Theison said earlier. “We’ve been doing little intros with the herd. It’s a gradual process. She’s also been picking up on conversation, which is vital.”
Correction, posted July 28, 2017: In an earlier version of this story, the elephant calf’s birth date was misstated.
First Published: July 25, 2017, 1:46 a.m.
