Baby Elephant Off to Shaky Start : Survival: Wild Animal Park officials worry about survival of newborn Asian elephant after his mother rejects him.

A newborn Asian elephant at the San Diego Wild Animal Park had to be separated from his mother shortly after birth Wednesday, leading keepers to worry whether the valuable young pachyderm will survive.

“The calf bellowed and scared the mom, and so Mom began to kick, stomp and try to kill the baby,” said Tom Hanscom, a spokesman for the park. “At that point, the keepers physically placed themselves between Mom and the baby.”

Hanscom, who witnessed the event, said it was “miraculous” that no one was injured.

“For a while it was all a jumble of keepers and elephants, and she did strike out and hit the keepers,” he said.

The attack occurred shortly after veterinarians cleared Omar the calf’s lungs of fluid and reunited the elephants, Hanscom said.

The park has tried since 1984 to establish an Asian elephant breeding program, but has been unsuccessful. Three fetuses have been stillborn at the park in recent years, so officials are willing to take extraordinary measures to save Omar, the first to make it out of the womb alive.

The park now has eight Asian elephants, Hanscom said.

A healthy male Asian elephant is worth $20,000 to $30,000, said Mike Keele, assistant curator at the Washington Park Zoo in Portland, Ore.

Twenty-four Asian elephants have been born in the Washington zoo since 1962, making it the most successful such program in the country, Keele said.

Raising elephants is difficult “primarily because of the bull elephant’s enormous size and power,” he said. “There are not that many facilities in the country that can house a bull. . . . They are capable of tearing down a building.”

It is also difficult to get them to breed because they need a free-roaming, “herd feeling,” Keele said.

More emphasis has been placed on raising Asian elephants than African elephants because Asians are fewer, but both are in danger of extinction, he said. A team of at least five keepers and veterinarians are monitoring the infant and 17-year-old mother, Connie, around the clock “until the situation changes drastically,” Hanscom said.

It is unsafe for the 265-pound calf to suckle from his mother, and zoo officials cannot milk enough from Connie themselves to ensure his survival, Hanscom said.

Getting milk to the calf is crucial because it contains ingredients that develop the youngster’s immune system, but park officials are taking it slowly. The pair are being reunited every four hours for short periods to try to get Connie to accept her son.

“We are still concerned that she might repeat this aggression,” Hanscom said.

During the get-acquainted sessions, Connie is bound with leg chains and Omar is on a leash. The restraints are necessary for the safety of the elephants and park officials, Hanscom said.