KOTA KINABALU: A 100kg bundle of joy is set to steal the limelight at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park.

The yet-to-be-named, two-month-old female baby Borneo Pygmy elephant is the newest addition to the 10-elephant herd at the zoo. It was born to 15-year-old Miss Rocco in May.

After Sumandak, it is the second Borneo Pygmy elephant to be born in the zoo, Born five months ago, Sumandak is the first Borneo Pygmy elephant to be born in captivity.

Apart from the zoos in Malaysia, there are several others in United States, Germany, Korea, Japan and China which have Borneo Pygmy elephants.

Park director Dr Sen Nathan said they were pleased to be the first to have the elephants born in captivity. It was an achievement for the park, which has only been operating for about 15 months.
"For a new zoo, I think we've had a fair number of new births. It is not easy to breed animals in captivity and the best we can do is to provide them a conducive environment and give proper nutrition," he said.

The park is also the second in the world to have a proboscis monkey born in captivity, in addition to an orang utan, deer, otters and a rare lesser adjutant stork.

Dr Sen said about 15 species of animals, including mammals and birds, had bred in the park.

"Every zoo wants to breed their animals, and on the top of our list right now is the clouded leopard.

"This is known to be difficult, but we want to give it a shot. We are also trying to breed our Borneo gibbons."

The 112ha park has seen some 225,000 visitors since it began operations. It had 661 animals as at December last year, including 287 birds, 169 reptiles and 205 mammals.