Crash landing: The youngster lost his footing as he tried to negotiate a log at Vienna Zoo and fell on his trunkWhen you’re a baby elephant there’s much to learn.
For instance, some logs you can simply step over – and some are so big it’s best to go round them.
Unfortunately for this little one at Vienna Zoo, mum was too busy to offer any advice, so he had to learn the hard way, tripping up and landing, rather uncomfortably, on his trunk.
Look at me: Under the watchful eye of mum, the little elephant makes a tentative attempt to step over the logThe Schönbrunn zoo in Vienna is the world's oldest animal conservation facility and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Last month, the zoo announced that one of their elephants had become pregnant from frozen sperm.
Scientists succeeded for the first time in impregnating an elephant with frozen sperm, ultrasound pictures presented by the zoo showed.
The scan showed a 10.6-centimetre-long (4.2 inch), five-month-old elephant foetus with its trunk, legs, tail, eyes and ears clearly discernible.
Over he goes: One of the animal's back legs gets caught on the log which send him toppling to the groundThe foetus, which was scanned in April, is likely now 20 cm long, the zoo said, and is due to be born to 26-year-old African elephant Tonga in or around August 2013 after a pregnancy of about 630 days.
Elephants have been impregnated with fresh or refrigerated sperm in the past in an effort to protect endangered species, but frozen sperm can be transported further, and allows the female elephant to be inseminated at her most fertile time.
A zoo spokeswoman said the sperm was taken from a sedated wild elephant in South Africa using electroejaculation in the project known internally as 'Operation Frozen Dumbo'.
source: dailymail
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