How does an elephant give birth?


"It's covered in amniotic fluid and that hits the ground with a bit of fluid cushioning, in a way, and then the water bursts everywhere. Within a couple of hours it should be standing up and starting to suckle the mother. She will smell it and blow on it. Lots of them will kick it. It's a gentle control kick to move it out of the sac, so it won't be suffocated by this quite thick membrane."

The baby was a heavy responsibility. Its tiny trunk might have got in the way at the moment of birth. The pregnancy was followed by ultrasound scan. "At about four months you can pick out the trunk on ultrasound," Boardman says.

The as-yet-unnamed baby started off about as big as a dot. "The same size as any mammal really. And then it was 24 stone or 149 kilos by the time it popped out."