Elephant story ! ~ baby born at Belgium Zoo

Brugelette is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut.  The Battle of Jemappes (6 Nov 1792) took place near the town of Jemappes in Hainaut, Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium), near Mons during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. One of the first major offensive battles of the war, it was a victory for the armies of the infant French Republic, and saw the French Armée du Nord, which included a large number of inexperienced volunteers, defeat a substantially smaller regular Austrian army.

General Charles François Dumouriez, in command of an army of French Revolutionary volunteers, faced the Imperial army of Field Marshal Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen and his second-in-command François de Croix, Count of Clerfayt. The French, who outnumbered their opponents by about three-to-one, launched a series of enthusiastic but uncoordinated attacks against the Austrian position on a ridge. At length, the French seized a portion of the ridge and the Austrians were unable to drive them away. Saxe-Teschen conceded defeat by ordering a withdrawal.  Jemappes was won by costly but effective charges against the Austrians' prepared position. Dumouriez overran the Austrian Netherlands within a month, but lost it at the Battle of Neerwinden in March. The French would not reconquer the Austrian Netherlands until the summer of 1794.

I love elephants ~ and recently I had posted on the  newly-built water shower for  Akila,  17-year-old female elephant at the Thiruvanaikoil Arulmigu Jambukeswarar Akhilandeswari temple,  to beat the heat as the temperature soars beyond a threshold in city. The female elephant, which required frequent bathing to beat the heat, now would be able to keep itself cool and active with the water shower, the authorities said. The shower, costing ₹1 lakh, was gifted to the temple by a Chennai-based donor to celebrate the elephant’s birthday, which falls this month.

Every now and then, we happen to see campaigns in various modes – spearheaded by foreigners, calling people and funds to save elephants - they would try to portray that in India, elephants are treated cruelly, being tortured and are suffering .. .. go to Kerala – in Temples if you have time to spend – you can realise the bond that exists between humans and the pachyderm and the way they are treated not with care but with affection.

The potential disruption to trade in services from Brexit could pose a far greater threat to the UK and EU economies than restrictions around the movement of goods, according to new research from the Dublin-based Institute for International and European Affairs (IIEA).The study - entitled “The Elephant in the Room” - argues that while much of the debate around the implications of Brexit has centred on the free movement of goods, there has been comparatively little focus on the issue of services, which makes up nearly three quarters of the UK’s economic output, and about 70 per cent of the EU’s economic activity.

Miles away, Animal park PairiDaiza in Brugelette in Hainaut province this weekend welcomed a new arrival, with the birth of a baby elephant. The baby is the fourth to be born in the park, and the fourth offspring of 16-year-old mother Farina, whose first two calves were born while she was at Hannover Zoo in Germany.

The father is 18-year-old Po Chin, who has been at PairiDaiza since 2010, and who has already sired two calves there – Ta Wan in 2017 and Malee in February this year.The new female, who is yet to be named, is the second calf to be born this year. The zoo said she was in good health, surrounded by her mother and a team of zoo workers. The elephants at the park are Indian elephants, making up a herd 20-strong, the largest herd of Indian elephants in Europe.

The Indian elephant is one of three types of Asian elephant, all of which are generally smaller than their African cousins, standing up to 3.5m at the shoulder and weighing up to 5 tonnes. The female is smaller than the male, and has short tusks or none at all. Perhaps the most recognisable feature of the Indian variety is their noticeably smaller ears.The Indian elephant has been listed as endangered since 1986, because of a loss of habitat, environmental deterioration and the fragmentation of wild populations. It is now extinct in Pakistan, but there are populations mainly in India, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia.

“We’ve had a lot of luck,” said head elephant keeper Rob Conachie. “This is the third female out of four births here. It’s a step forward in the protection of this species. There are only 38,000 of these wonderful creatures left on the planet, so every birth, especially of a female, is of huge importance.”

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

14^th June 2019

Reference on zoo elephant :https://www.brusselstimes.com / photo : dailymail.co.uk