Omar, Animal Park Baby Elephant, Is Seriously Ill

Omar, the 8-month-old elephant rejected by his mother at birth, was battling a mysterious, life-threatening infection Tuesday at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, park officials said.

The elephant showed small signs of improvement Tuesday afternoon, drinking baby formula and standing on his wobbly legs for the first time in several days, park staff said.

Veterinarians and park staff were keeping a 24-hour watch over the 560-pound baby, keeping him “warm and quiet” in a hay-filled barn. An IV with glucose solution hung from the rafters on a coil, delivering life-sustaining fluid while allowing the pachyderm to move freely.

“We can’t say right now what his chances (for survival) are,” said Tom Hanscom, spokesman for the Wild Animal Park, “but we are very concerned, and recognize the fact that he could die.”

Omar was the first Asian elephant born at the park, after the breeding program produced three stillborns. Shortly after the birth, the mother apparently became frightened by the baby and attacked him, stepping on his mucous-encased body, trumpeting and knocking him about on the ground, Hanscom said.

Keepers rescued the baby and later tried unsuccessfully to reintroduce him to the mother. They began hand-feeding the elephant, using advice solicited from other zoos that had been successful in raising the only two Asian elephants to survive without their mothers, Hanscom said.

In an attempt to compensate for the lack of a mother’s milk, vital to the development of the mammalian immune system, Omar received injections of his mother’s blood and was fed milk from cows that had recently given birth.

Omar had digestive problems and did not gain weight. Park officials gave the elephant little more than a 50% chance of surviving but became increasingly optimistic as time went on.

“Over the last couple of months, his diarrhea went away,” Hanscom said. “He was quite active and strong. He was growing.”

Omar learned to use his trunk, knocking around balls and picking up plastic toys, and waded in a pool in his pen. He drank about 84 ounces of baby formula--a mixture of human baby formula with added vitamins and minerals--every three hours.

But toward the end of January, Omar began walking with a limp. He became constipated and lost his appetite, causing him to become dehydrated. The symptoms escalated, his knee joints becamed inflamed and swollen, and his white blood cell count rose to three times its normal level.

“He is in a lot of pain,” Hanscom said, adding that Omar has lost about 50 pounds. “His inclination is to lie down, and when he does stand, he leans and rocks and does not like to walk around. . . . He’s showing abdominal pain by the way he stretches.”

Veterinarians performed a sonogram of Omar’s shoulders Tuesday morning, in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the infection. Hanscom explained that it is difficult to diagnose elephants because their torsos are too thick to X-ray. If Omar gets a little stronger, he may have his swollen legs X-rayed at the San Diego Zoo, which has a large machine.

Veterinarians speculate that Omar’s deficient immune system may be attacking the elephant’s own body, much like human leukemia, Hanscom said.

Omar is on antibiotics, and is taking pain killers and anti-inflammatory drugs.

“I think he’s real tough,” said Pamela Sturm, who has been watching over Omar since August. “He’s in there now reaching for ropes and things that he can play with. I think he’s going to make it.”

The park has nine Asian elephants. There are about 35,000 of the endangered species left in the wild, in areas of Southeast Asia and India, Hanscom said.

Another Asian elephant, Mary, is pregnant and due in September. Park workers have been getting Mary acclimated to Omar so she won’t be as likely to reject her baby, Hanscom said.

Animal rights activists have responded to Omar’s illness with a call to end breeding of elephants in captivity.

If Omar survives, “I’m not sure it would be a life worth living,” Sally Mackler, director of San Diego Animal Advocates, said in a statement. The statement lamented the unnatural conditions of elephants in captivity.

“In the wild, elephants learn mothering skills from life in the herd,” the statement said. “Captivity does not permit that necessary learning to take place and rejection of the newborn can be the result.”

State Sen. Dan McCorquodale (D-San Jose) introduced legislation last week that would require better care and handling of elephants in captivity. The legislation outlaws the practice of keeping elephants chained for long periods and was in response to a recent incident in which an elephant killed his keeper at an Oakland zoo.