Red pandas, Asian elephant born in Alberta zoos

Two Alberta zoos are celebrating baby news, with Edmonton's Valley Zoo saying two red pandas have survived the critical first month and the Calgary Zoo announcing the birth of an Asian elephant calf.

Both species are endangered.

The yet-to-be-named pandas were born on June 26, but the first month is critical because that's when they are most likely to become sick and die.

Sandy Helliker, an animal health technician, has been with the pandas day and night andbelieves they'll survive. They were taken from their mother after concernsshe was over-grooming them.

"I think their chances are very good now that they are older and getting more mobile," she said.

Only2,500 mature red pandaslivein the Himalayas in India, southern China and Nepal. The Valley Zoo is part of an international breeding program that has 40 red pandas being bred in zoosin an effort to preserve the species.

Meanwhile in Calgary,ayet-to-be-named Asian elephant calf was born early Thursday morning and weighed in at 140 kilograms. The calf's 17-year-old mother, Maharani, rejected her last offspring, which died in December of 2004.

Wild Asian elephants are endangered, with only an estimated 30,000 living in south and southeast Asia.

Kevin Strange, whoworks for the zoo, saidstaff are cautiously optimistic about this birth, even though it's too early to say if Maharani is bonding with her calf

"She had a good pregnancy, 22 months of good health, we think a good delivery, the calf seems to be pretty healthy," he said. "Things are going in the right direction."

In the wild, there is a nearly 50 per cent mortality rate for elephant calves, he said.

Rob Laidlaw, a spokesman for Zoocheck Canada, a national animal welfare group, saidbreeding elephants in captivity has more to do with money than with conservation.

"For some people in the zoo world,they recognize that elephants and other creatures like thatare attractions, they bring people through the gate," he said. "So they come up with these arguments about conservation, but really what they aredoing is breeding for theirown purposes."

Laidlaw said breeding elephants in captivity is rarely successful andzoossuch asCalgary's simply don't have the resources to care for such large animals.