Ramat Gan Safari Park Welcomes a Second Asian Elephant Calf

Two female Asian Elephant calves have been
born at Ramat Gan Safari Park in Israel. The first female to give birth was 7.5
year-old La-Belle, on August 2. As she is a very young mother, her own mother La-Petite, heavily pregnant herself, took over and nursed the calf. After a few
nerve-wracking days of 24-hour monitoring, keepers could rest assured that the
calf was getting enough milk, suckling from both her mother and her grandmother
alternately. The calf, born a bit small, was named Latangi which means
‘slim girl’ in the Sanskrit language. (See our first story about Latangi here.)

After exactly two months of anticipation, a
second female calf was born to 28-year-old La-Petite. This time the calf was
bigger and stronger and received the Hindi name ‘Lalana’ meaning ‘a girl’. Both mothers and calves are doing great. They are spending their days in the exhibit
happily, together with the father Motek. The birth of the two
calves is wonderful news, especially as Asian Elephants are a unique and endangered species.