September 17, 2013: Crying baby elephant

[lumberjim]

I wonder if the baby has some congenital defect that the mother can sense.

[Adak]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

I wonder if the baby has some congenital defect that the mother can sense.

No, that's another animal myth. This young elephant was perfectly healthy.

One problem is, elephants that are raised in small groups (in captivity typically), don't get enough role model examples of how they should act. They don't learn how other moms in their herd, nurse their young; protect their young, and care for them in general.

And as Coign pointed out, many times mothers in nature (dads too), are not the idyllic animal parents we see in so many wildlife stories and films. They can be very harsh and brutal at times.