First successful artificial mating in endangered Asian elephants in China

Chinese researchers have for the first time used artificial breeding techniques to breed a baby Asian elephant.

The Asian elephant is a first- class national protected animal that inhabits Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, where the cub was delivered.

A female elephant Weilai delivered the healthy 106- centimeter male cub on March 16 after 22 months’ pregnancy, news portal chinanews. com reported Wednesday.

The birth was engineered by the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.

The cub is reported to be in stable health.

“Having delivered a cub in 2010 in natural breeding, Wei- lai never got pregnant again although she went into heat several times,” Bao Mingwei, a veterinary from the center was qouted as saying by chinanews. com.

Bao said they detected Weilai’s hormone level and chose the best timing for her to mate with a male elephant Pailun in 2015.

Over the past ten years, employees from the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center have successfully bred three Asian elephants through natural mating. The birth of this cub has opened a new era in breeding Asian elephants with the assistance of new technologies.

“We look forward to more artificially- aided breeding Asian elephant cubs with the assistance of the cutting- edge technologies,” Bao said.

According to Bao, there are about 300 wild elephants inhabiting Xishuangbanna, Puer and Lincang in Yunnan.