March 10, 2007	Saturday	Safar 20, 1428

BANGKOK: An artificially inseminated elephant has given birth to a healthy male calf in Thailand, a scientific first in Asia that could help protect the endangered animal, a veterinarian said Friday.

“We were so happy. Both mother and baby were healthy and well,” said Sittidet Mahasawangkul, the head of Elephant Hospital under the state-run Elephant Conservation Center in the northern province of Lampang.

“His birth gave us great hope, since this is the first success of artificial insemination in Thailand and Asia,” he said.

The calf was born at the hospital late on Wednesday, weighing 100 kilogram and around 90 centimetres tall, he said.

“His weight and height were perfectly normal,” Sittidet said, adding that the 24-year-old mother, Phang Khod, was artificially impregnated in June 2005.

The pair were under 24-hour watch at the hospital because the three-tonne mother accidentally killed its first baby elephant by kicking it in 2004.—AFP