Elephants Helping Elephants—Using Milk

People had a good milk story yesterday. Specifically, a good elephant milk story. Which is kind of ironic. You would think the magazine would have stories about people! Nope. Elephant magazine. Elephant milk magazine.

Excerpts:

Recently, when both of the elephants welcomed calves of their own and started lactating, the animals felt comfortable enough with their caretakers to allow the humans to take samples of their milk several times a week…The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is now able to learn more about the chemical structure of an elephant mother’s milk. The hope is that SDZWA, along with their partners at the University of California San Diego and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo Milk Repository, can use this information to develop a baby formula that will easily provide the orphan elephants claves of the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in Kenya with the nutrition they need to grow up healthy and strong…”Mother’s milk is considered the best source of elephant calf nutrition, but unfortunately, in some cases, we need to assist-rear animals,” Katie Kerr, Ph.D., a nutritionist at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “The data on the composition of African elephant milk is limited. Understanding nutritional composition of this milk is integral to increasing survival of young calves in these situations, and the opportunity for older calves to thrive.”

Heck yes, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. And heck yes, Umngani and Ndulamitsi—the two mothers in question. Great use of milk. Very impressed.