Jumbo baby ready to shine

Melbourne Zoo’s baby elephant will soon make her first public appearance since her birth last month.

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Melbourne Zoo's still unnamed elephant calf, just three weeks old, loves the water.

While Dokkoon and great aunt Mek Kapah cooled off in the pond at the elephant barn, the youngster was throwing herself around in the water.

Slapping her trunk, running wildly, losing her feet, fully submerging herself - having the time of her life.

When keepers brought out a bale of hay for the two older elephants, the calf ran full speed out of the water and started rolling in it.

Mum quickly grabbed what she could before her calf mixed the hay up with water and and wet sand from the pond.

"It would be like someone rolling in your salad," curator Dan Maloney said.

Since coming into the world in at 110kg on January 16, the calf has been putting away 12 to 14 litres of milk a day and is now around 138kg.

"She's very confident, very self assured, very intrepid," Mr Maloney said.

The keepers have been introducing the baby to Mek Kapah since the birth and the bond between the two has grown quickly.

The baby would run between the two older elephants while playing in the water and getting under her mother for shade from the hot sun whenever she took a breather from her play.

At one stage, she had an itch on her backside and rubbed it up against one of Dokkoon's front legs.

The calf is just the second elephant born in Australia - the other being born at Taronga Zoo.

It is the first baby elephant born in the zoo's 148-year history.

She will also have a playmate later this year with another of the zoo's Thai elephant, Kulab, due to give birth in August or September.


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Source: AAP


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