Celia Aguero Pereda
Cabárceno (Cantabria), Feb 3 (EFE).- The family of animals in the Cabárceno Nature Park, in Cantabria, has increased after, on January 18, the elephant Infinita gave birth to little Beatuca, one more but very important female for the population of African elephants in captivity.
After about 20 months of gestation, Infinita has given birth to an elephant weighing about 80 kilos, a normal weight for female African elephants, which has evolved “perfectly”, although it could not be integrated with the rest from the beginning. of the group because it was born on the days that it has rained the most this year in Cantabria.
«They were those days when it rained a lot, when everything was very wet and then we have left it in the patios so that it is calm, so that it develops, so that it is strong, it is not going to be that it falls on us in any of the wells of the enclosure and we have problems, ”the head of Cabárceno veterinarians, Santiago Borragán, explained in an interview with EFE.
Beatuca, baptized with this name in honor of Beato de Liébana and because this year Cantabria celebrates its Lebaniego Jubilee Year, is currently with her mother, both separated from the rest of the elephants in the enclosure due to weather reasons, although this is normal in the park. is that as they are born they are with the whole group.
“It’s in the yard, the others are outside and it doesn’t even arouse their curiosity, just one more has arrived and that’s it,” Borragán added about the adaptation of this new calf and its acceptance by the rest of the elephants.
One more little elephant that joins this group of animals that live in the Cabárceno Nature Park and that is a joy because, according to the head of veterinarians, it is more important that females are born than males for the population of elephants in captivity.
Borragán has assured that Infinita is an expert mother, since she has had another calf and, in addition, “she breeds very well”, which makes the level of concern of veterinarians less.
“It is one more but in reality for the population it is an important animal, it is the number 22 of viable offspring that we have in the park,” said the head of Cabárceno veterinarians, who pointed out that, in reality, a total of of 26 elephants, but “for one reason or another” some are no longer in the park.
And he has highlighted that this figure places it as the park in the world where the most African elephant calves have been born in captivity, which “fills all the workers of this Cantabrian facility with pride”.
In addition, the park has managed to maintain “the streak” that it has had for 30 years of practically every year contributing a calf to the group of African elephants.
The Cabárceno Nature Park received the first African elephants in 1990 and the studies carried out in the park, together with the large 25-hectare space in which they live, have achieved that, in this time, 22 pachyderms have been born in this enclosure through natural reproduction.
Currently, 20 elephants live in this space, making up the largest herd of this species that exists outside of Africa and demonstrating the success of the breeding programs carried out in the Cantabrian facility. EFE
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