Mammoth effort from a big daddy

NO BABY elephant has ever been born in Australia - but now three elephants are pregnant at zoos in Sydney and Melbourne.

Taronga Zoo announced that a third elephant, Pontipp, is in the maternity wing, as a result of artificial insemination.

She joins Thong Dee, impregnated naturally by mate Gong at Taronga last year and Dokkoon, impregnated by artificial insemination at Melbourne Zoo.

The two artificially inseminated infants were sired by Melbourne's Bong Su - described by vet Dr Michael Lynch as "the most fertile bull in the world".

Dr Lynch said Bong Su's sperm count is 1.2 billion per millilitre, compared to regular elephant fertility of 800 to 900 million per millilitre.

Ultrasound images of Dokkoon's baby calf show its tiny trunk. The images are the only ones anyone is likely to see before she has her calf sometime between December next year and January 2010. As the baby swells the mother's womb, further tests will be impossible.

Dokkoon and Bong Su were two of eight elephants to arrive from Thailand in November 2006.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/08/28/1219516662711.html?feed=fairfaxdigitalxml