....come.... the... f**k.... on.....

I kept hoping this story was picked up from The Onion.

What a joke. In the wild the elephant would be pregnant.

The bit about the 12-year old daughter is complete rhetoric and incorrect.

These people need to lighten the f*ck up.

I'm wondering how the 5 year old elephant that got pregnant fared.

Thumbnail is an African Elephant though.

slut!, lol

it's been happening for millions of years...thats how new elephants are made...idiots

Thats the thing, its an animal NOT a human so they really have no say. What are they going to do about it -- Kill it cause it has a young mother? Im pretty sure some of the best mothers are young in their own respects.

Don't you go blaming the victim. It is obviously the bull elephant who is at fault here. That male elephant is a pedophile!

what's next...when an amoeba proliferates it will be declared as incest?

I just can't get over the 22 month pregnancy....I think this planet would have a much lower human population if that were the case with us.


Hmmm.....maybe we should look into that.

And, yes. I agree. Are they seriously comparing the age of an elephant to a human?

eye-yi-yi!

According to helpelephants.com, the average age that an Asian elephant has it's first pregnacy in the wild is 13. The females come into sexual maturity between 9 and 15 years old. So yes, compared to humans, it would be like a 12-14 year old becoming pregnant.

Considering that these elephants can live to an average age of 80 in captivity, why not wait a few years, when there would be less potential harm to the mother.

The article doesn't state it, but I'm curious if the zoo intentionally got her pregnant, or if this was just a case of a bull getting hold of a younger female when the staff wasn't looking.

Regardless, considering the small number of Asian elephants remaining, it would be a tragedy if this one died from complications of this pregnancy, and it was found to be related to her young age.

Heh. Looks like someone else actually read the article. :)

It all depends on how you play with the numbers.
The fact that an elephant and a human have the same life expectancy makes it easier to compare numbers.

Yours is definitely one valid way of fiddling the numbers. Other ways are also valid:

First of all the article states 11 is the minimum preferred age so we have a pregnancy 2 years early then the chosen minimum.

Looked at that way, it is similar to a 16 year old daughter getting pregnant (2 years earlier than 18)

Looked at a different way...

You say average age for a wild elephant to get pregnant is 13 and this one got pregnant at 9. This is 4 years earlier than average.

The average age for a human's first pregnancy is 24. Four years earlier than average would be 20.


now of course if there really are health risks that does put things in a different light. I wonder just how much risk is really present though. There may be a substantial amount, I have no idea.

The numbers above are done semi-tongue-in-cheek

Well theres no mention of him anywhere in the article, so seeing how the new trend is for black guys to like asian girls.. I'm going to assume it was an african elephant as the father.. and he skipped town.. so noone to blame.. and theres no elephants in mexico.. so i can't make a joke about mexicans.. :-( And considering she doesn't have an I.D. she probably lied about her age..

I have issues..

I bow to your greater wisdom and insight sir.

Why thank you.. I chose to listen to the little angel on my shoulder instead of the lil devil on the other side.. he was tellin me to bring the idea of abortion into this this debate saying if she was too young just make her get an abortion.. are elephants rights activists pro-choice?

I think the issues here are twofold:

1) Is the young elephant physically mature enough to carry a pregnancy to term without harming herself or her calf? If not, then the staff have needlessly put both mother and calf in danger, which is irresponsible.

2) Is the young elephant mentally mature enough to be responsible for the calf and take care of it properly? If not, then the zoo staff have to take over and raise the baby, which they might not have the resources to do.

I'll bet there was alcohol involved. Always seem to be in cases like this. What is the minimum drinking age for an elephant?

The link between ages of humans and elephants is completely ridiculous. It is society that states when the ideal time for human pregnancy, not biology. In the not so distant past women were married with children by the time they were 15.

The link does not give remotely enough information to make an informed opinion on if this is morally corrupt of the zoo or not.

Unless it was a forced breeding than I have absolutely no issues with it whatsoever. If it was, than I need more information to have an opinion.

Are they certain of the age of this elephant? It came from another country, and arrived in the midst of chaotic protests.

If she has been accepted into a family group, and has bonded well with one or more older females who have already had babies, then I think her odds are pretty good for avoiding mental problems.

I agree, if there is any other inkling of difficulty, save the mother so she can breed again at a better time. But if she is of a good size, and in otherwise good health, she will be fine.