The baby elephant in the room

Understandably, the birth of a 142kg baby elephant in captivity is not a simple process. It requires an expert team of people and as such, Zoos Victoria, the University of Melbourne, and Gribbles Veterinary Pathology joined forces to ensure both Kulab and her baby were safe.

The University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Veterinary Science and Gribbles Veterinary Pathology were instrumental in monitoring Kulab’s pregnancy.

Medical scientist Debra Kirkham from the Faculty of Veterinary Science custom designed an elephant progesterone test that could detect such low levels of progesterone in the blood.

“I took a human test kit that measures relatively high levels of progesterone in the blood and modified it to detect the low elephant levels,” she says.

Blood samples were taken from Kulab weekly during her pregnancy, then daily as her due date approached and eventually twice a day as soon as the drop in progesterone was detected.

These samples were then sent straight to the Clinical Pathology Laboratory at the University of Melbourne Veterinary Hospital in Werribee, where the tests were immediately run. The results were then reported straight to the Zoo.

“We were looking for a sharp drop in progesterone, and once we detected it, it was all hands on deck for Kulab,” Ms Kirkham says.

“We noticed the drop in progesterone on 6 September then the Zoo called in Dr Hildebrandt from Germany and the baby was born on 10 September – so the test was very effective in getting the timing right.”

Central to the success of the birth is having a team of experts on deck helping the mother through the gruelling process.

Senior Veterinarian of Zoos Victoria, Dr Helen McCracken explained that in the wild, female elephants learn the birthing process through witnessing other herd members giving birth.

“But we have had only one prior elephant birth in Melbourne – Mali – so Kulab had very little experience of the process,” Dr McCracken says.

“We actually encouraged Kulab to observe Mali’s birth to learn from the experience but she ended up sleeping through most of it!”

The team of keepers, vets and specialists present at the birth provided a support group for Kulab, much like the herd would in the wild, Dr McCracken said. They were also there to step in just in case something went wrong.

To ensure the process was as smooth as possible, the team also enlisted the help of internationally-renowned elephant reproduction expert, Dr Thomas Hildebrandt, who flew in from Germany.

For Dr Hildebrandt and the other members of the team to be there at the correct time, it was crucial to estimate when the birth would occur.

But an accurate prediction of a due date in elephants is difficult. There is a wide range of gestation periods reported for elephants, from 626 to 674 days, hence the baby could be born roughly anywhere in a 40-day period, Dr McCracken explains.

A well-established technique, used in zoos worldwide, is to measure the mother’s progesterone serum levels in the period leading up to the expected time of birth.

“Progesterone is maintained at a high level for the elephant’s pregnancy until three to four days prior to giving birth, when progesterone levels will drop, indicating labour is about to begin.”

The problem is however, that elephant progesterone levels are some of the lowest levels in the mammalian world and are therefore very tricky to identify using many commercial blood tests.

Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo has a laboratory that performs a progesterone test suitable for elephants; however it was essential to develop this expertise in Melbourne prior to the time of Kulab’s delivery. Vets needed to have blood samples tested immediately, with results available within several hours, in order to respond to the drop in levels as soon as it was detected.

The University of Melbourne and Zoos Victoria have worked together closely for many years and a Joint Collaborative Committee was established to share expertise in the fields of conservation, sustainability and Veterinary Sciences.

As techniques for elephant births are still being refined, it is valuable to investigate different methods. Therefore, Dr McCracken arranged for Gribbles Veterinary Pathology to trial an alternative progesterone test so that the performance of the two could be assessed retrospectively.

The advantages of the Gribbles test were that it was very fast and results could therefore be reported almost immediately, although it wasn’t as sensitive in detecting the very low levels of progesterone reached by Kulab in the last few days of her pregnancy, Dr McCracken says.

“It is important that we keep researching effective methods to monitor pregnancy because this will be crucial to the success of future elephant births.”