Rejected by his herd after the birth of another baby elephant, a barely two-week-old baby elephant died Thursday, April 8 in the evening at Borås Zoo in Sweden, where his fate moved the country.
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“
Despite three days of intensive care with a veterinarian and caregivers watching over him day and night, the little animal passed away today.
Her body could not take any more, she had to fall asleep,
”announced the zoo on Instagram, with a photo of caretakers surrounding the animal.
Born on March 26, the baby elephant, a young female who did not yet have a name, was rejected by the herd after the birth of another baby elephant, a male, on Monday April 5.
“
We are all very sad, but at the same time we are trying to rejoice that the other baby elephant seems alert and awake,
” the zoo continued.
The caregivers explained that they could do nothing against the rejection of the baby by the group.
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Borås Wildlife Park in western Sweden is home to a dozen African elephants.
Captive births are rare for the species, whose population has declined dramatically in the wild.
Fifty years ago, around 1.5 million elephants roamed across Africa, but the most recent large mammal census in 2016 only counted 415,000, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature ( IUCN).
