San Diego

An Asian elephant at the San Diego Wild Animal Park delivered a stillborn male calf Friday afternoon after nearly two years of gestation and three days of labor.

Veterinarians were unable to save the calf, despite 52 minutes of resuscitation during which they produced a normal heartbeat but could not get the young elephant to breathe.

The calf, born to a 27-year-old elephant named Mary and fathered by a 25-year-old elephant named Ranchipur, was taken to the pathology laboratory at the San Diego Zoo for necropsy. Preliminary results are expected in one to two weeks.

The stillbirth is the third in the park’s captive breeding program. Another fetus was spontaneously aborted at 10 months. The park’s sole breeding success was Omar, an Asian elephant born last summer, which died in March of an infection.

Spokesman Tom Hanscom called the stillbirth “a tremendous disappointment” that came after a huge investment of time and emotion by the park’s staff.

The Asian elephant is very difficult to breed in captivity, Hanscom said. About 160 are in North American zoos, including 11 held by the Zoological Society of San Diego at the Wild Animal Park and the San Diego Zoo.