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Boechout, AntwerpGreat news: after a pregnancy of 22 months (!) the Asian elephant Phyo Phyo has given birth to the first baby elephant born in Belgium.
The little girl weighs about 100 kilos and both mother and daughter are doing fine. She was born yesterday morning at 8.45 local time.
People have been following the pregnancy for months and everybody was praying that there would be no complications with the birth (which unfortunately often
happens with elephants).
The zoo had installed a webcam in Phyo Phyo, but the birth happened so sudden that they couldn't capture the actual birth. You can see a video and some lovely photos of the little baby elephant on : www.baby-olifant.be.
It feels so good that have some positive news in the media, doesn't it?
Hugs,
Peter
How lovely! There's something quite magical about elephants isn't there?! I love 'em!
Hi Peter,
What a tiny little ellie! :dance:
They are so cute at this age. :hug:
Thanks for the pictures. :photo: :photo:
love kayx. 
Artist Bears by LesleyAwwwwwwwww
Hi Peter,
So lovely to hear a good news story thank you! Beautiful baby elephant.
I love elephants and for my birthday I got a mouse pad with elephant and note paper.
Hugs
Carolyn
Dolls N DreamsAwwwwwwwwwww she is adorable!!! Glad mother and baby are doing well!
Hi Peter,
Thank you SO much for posting this, just what I needed today. What wonderful beautiful news! I watched the little video (though it was somewhat jerky on my computer for some reason) and was virtually holding my breath all the time as I was sure the little one would get trampled. The wonderful Mum was so very protective right from the start though, wasn't she.
Elephants always make me cry, I adore them and if I watch a documentary about them, I invariably end up bawling my eyes out!
Think I will be watching this several times today!
Thank you again!
Hugs
Marilyn
OH MY....JUST AMAZING! Hugs, Susan.
puca bearsThanks SO much for posting the news, Peter - as you say - it's nice to read some GOOD news.
and what an absolutely adorable baby - utterly enchanting! Lovely too that everything went so well, and that the elephant family are ALL happy with the new baby.
huggies
Maria
Waggle BearsWhat a sweet baby. "It takes a village" to get a baby elephant on his feet. I see they sent him rolling a couple of times, but otherwise seemed to be so gentle with him. Thanks for sharing.
Past Time BearsThanks so much, Peter, for sharing this beautiful story and experience with us! I love watching live cam video of what's going on during such a momentous occasion.
DENBY BEARS What a sweet little baby. I love elephants, so I did go watch the video, I thought they were going to trample that poor baby. But I guess thats the way the elephants do it, all the aunts help out, trying to get the baby on its feet. It sure was nice of you to share.
Thanx Pat
DoodlebearsHi Peter, thank you so much for the news about the baby elephant and the lovely pictures. I was holding my breath when I watched the videos. Thank goodness the baby has a loving mum to look after her. The other elephants worried me as they were trying so hard to see and investigate the new baby.
Hugs, Jane. 
Oh what a sweet baby-elephant - I love elephants since I've been a child (my ballet-teacher gave us every time we had some event in the theatre a nice elephant made out of jade and I've all my elephants still sitting here beside me) - for me elephants are the sweetest animals (of course first coming my beloved bears) in all over this wonderful world!!!
thank you for joining with us those wonderful pictures!!! Hugs from Austria
Tindle BearsSome of us over on artfire watched the live feed for quite some time 
I couldn't stay up to watch that late but was very excited to see baby when i woke up : D
TeenytinyteddybearsThank you for posting that Peter. I also love Eli's. Been to Addo elephant park in South Africa a number of times. Used to collect Elephants. Had about 100, the box got lost in one of the moves.... But the video was amazing to watch. Never seen a baby so new.... saw a baby giraffe take its first steps in the bush once.
Peter please settle a "dispute", what language is the lady speaking? Without displaying too much ignorance I had it as dutch. I can even read the articles. Which means Belgium is a good country to consider, I can understand what is going on around me 
desertmountainbearWhat a tiny sweet angel. I am so glad it turned out well.
Joanne
Benson BearsThankyou so much for that, Peter, baby elephants are my all time faves!
Bubble Up Bears!Thank you for sharing and the link too.
Boy she sure seems to be a happy little girl!!
Boechout, AntwerpThank you for posting that Peter. I also love Eli's. Been to Addo elephant park in South Africa a number of times. Used to collect Elephants. Had about 100, the box got lost in one of the moves.... But the video was amazing to watch. Never seen a baby so new.... saw a baby giraffe take its first steps in the bush once.
Peter please settle a "dispute", what language is the lady speaking? Without displaying too much ignorance I had it as dutch. I can even read the articles. Which means Belgium is a good country to consider, I can understand what is going on around me :lol:
Yes Carolynn you are absolutely right : it is all in Dutch (the North of Belgium is Dutch speaking, the South is French speaking and a very small minority speaks German ! Can you imagine a teeny tiny country like ours with barely 10 million inhabitants speaking three different languages 
).
Thank you everyone for all your great feedback : I was certain that you not only liked bears, but "all creatures great and small".
Hugs, :hug:
Peter
How lovely to see this, what an adorable little baby and looks so happy, bless
Pauline
TeenytinyteddybearsThanks Peter. It was lovely to hear. Which do you speak? Or all 3? I have a basic understanding of German, Dutch used to be fluent, loosing it a little, and very little french. But your ratio of people to language is roughly the same as South Africa. We have 47 million people and 11 official languages. Then still dialects, immigrant languages and funigalo spoken by workers on the mines that is a mix of all of them. A bit silly really.
Boechout, AntwerpThanks Peter. It was lovely to hear. Which do you speak? Or all 3? I have a basic understanding of German, Dutch used to be fluent, loosing it a little, and very little french. But your ratio of people to language is roughly the same as South Africa. We have 47 million people and 11 official languages. Then still dialects, immigrant languages and funigalo spoken by workers on the mines that is a mix of all of them. A bit silly really.
Carolynn, how lovely to hear that you used to be fluent in Dutch. That is my native tongue, but I'm quite fluent in English and French (which is practically mandatory here if you work in the financial world, like I do). My German isn't what it used to be; I haven't spoken German since high school. It is actually quite funny when I have to attend meetings in Brussels in the centre of Belgium : the presentations are often in English and then the participants start discussing in different languages When everybody is in a good mood they make an effort to speak the language of the other party, but when the discussion heats up, everybody immediately switches to their own language .
Groetjes en een dikke berenknuffel,
Peter
DoodlebearsPeter, that's so strange, I was going to ask you which language is your native language, now I know the answer.
Hugs, Jane.
Simply adorable! Thank you for sharing! A lifelike baby elephant is on my to do list.
