Royal elephants expecting a baby

Kolmården in Sweden, the largest zoo in the Nordics, has (on 14 October 2016) announced with great pleasure that King Karl XVI Gustaf’s Bua elephant cow is pregnant. The father of the prospective calf is none other than Danish Queen Margrethe‘s elephant bull Tonsak.

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The new elephant calf will be born in the autumn of 2017, when Bua been pregnant for about 22 months. Bua is already the mother of Kolmården’ smallest, Namsai, who last summer turned three.

“After the birth of Namsai we know that Bua is a good mother who knows how to take care of her calf, so we have high hopes that she will be just fine with the new calf,” says Tommy Karlsson, who is manager of Kolosseum (the Coliseum) in Kolmården.

Bua (born 1997) came to Kolmården in 2004 with Sao Noi (born 1996) from Thailand, after King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden received the two elephant cows as a gift from the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Tonsak (born 1998) came to Kolmården Copenhagen Zoo in the summer of 2015, also a gift from the late Thai king to Danish Queen Margrethe.

 

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The Swedish King greets the three months old elephant baby Namsai. To the left is Namsai’s mother Bua and to the right Saonoi. Photo: Kungahuset.se

”Up to birth, we will work extra hard on practicing and exercising Bua to keep her in good shape during pregnancy. We also take regular blood and urine tests to ensure that everything is progressing as it should,” says Tommy Karlsson, who is already working to modify the elephant stables to give Bua the best conditions when she will give birth , among other things, by putting sand in the whole box.

Featured Photo: Rickard Monéus/Kolmården

About Joakim Persson

Freelance business and lifestyle photojournalist

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