【on site】

　　it's just a snack

　　Dabao Dabao

　　it wants to eat and greets you

　　like a child

　　[Explanation] Hold your nose high to beg for food from the caretaker, and spray water to attract your attention. The African elephant has a lot of thoughts for a bite of his favorite snack, but he eats happily, and the caretaker feeds it well I am even happier, because a new member of the elephant herd we took care of was born.

　　[Concurrent] Animal Conservation Expert Yang Handong

　　The smallest baby elephant was born on January 25 at the beginning of this year. Its mother is named Jane. It weighed 118 kilograms when it was born. Now it is in a better condition. It has often played outside with its mother, brothers and sisters. Now it is The weight reached 140 kg.

　　[Explanation] Just recently, the newborn African elephant baby "Xiao Liu" at the Chimelong National Base of World Rare Wild Animals and Plants in Qingyuan, Guangdong, ushered in the full moon. It can already live with the elephant herd.

Brothers and sisters are always naughty, fighting and playing in the water, very happy, "Xiao Liu" is still too young to stay close to his mother, and it is just a baby drinking milk.

　　"Little Six" is the sixth African baby elephant successfully bred by the elephant herd in less than a year from May 2022 to the present.

It and its brothers and sisters are also the only remaining African elephant individuals born in China.

　　[Explanation] In fact, the "Little Six" family comes from Africa, and Zimbabwe is one of the countries with the densest distribution of African elephants.

However, successive years of drought and food shortage have deteriorated the living environment of African elephants in Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwean government has been seeking more protection for African elephants through international cooperation.

In 2015, this group of African elephants came to Guangzhou and started an international ex situ conservation journey.

　　[Concurrent] Animal Conservation Expert Yang Handong

　　Including the overall habitat, that is, the construction of the living environment, like the pools and soil mounds seen in the back, including the feed for planting, and the inner house where they go back to rest at night. We have spread sand on the ground of all the inner houses, including The outside is made of mud, because it prevents the soles of its feet from rubbing on the concrete floor for a long time.

There is also its medical treatment. We have also done a lot of tests on the disease prevention and control.

　　[Explanation] In order to take good care of this group of African elephants, the animal conservationists have worked hard and established a number of standards related to the environment, nutrition, health, and disease prevention, filling in the gaps in China's large population of ex-situ protection of African elephants blank.

　　[On-site] Animal health doctor Zhong Yongjun

　　Let's clean it up. Its feet look like human insoles. This layer is so thick that it looks like an insole. As long as this layer is not broken (outside), it will not hurt it. It is normal to look at it like this now. Condition, because we often go on flat roads, but for these we prevent it from corroding, so it needs to be repaired regularly.

　　[Explanation] Doing "nail art" while eating snacks comfortably is very cooperative for this project, but not necessarily for some projects. In front of the camera, the blood-drawing syringe was thrown to the ground by the big ear.

Every health check that doctors create for them requires a long period of running-in and training before these smart and sensitive big guys are willing to accept it.

　　[Same period] Zhong Yongjun, an animal health doctor

　　Elephants are very smart, so they have to take their time. You have to let each elephant take its time. Some may take a month and a half (blood samples), and some may take a few months It can’t be collected, including half a year, so the blood of these two tubes, including the domestication just now, is done slowly, day after day, year after year, so that it feels that you don’t mean to hurt it, It is willing to cooperate with you.

　　[Explanation] According to conservation experts, if elephants can give birth to new lives, it means that they have adapted to the local living environment and grown up healthily. This is the best answer to international animal protection.

The provenance base also stated that, based on observations, it is expected that more African elephants will be born in China in the near future.

　　Reporter Wang Qingran reports from Guangzhou

Responsible editor: [He Sanli]