Jumbo undertaking: Elephant milk under the microscope
Monday, January 20, 2020 - 08:50
in Biology & Nature
On a recent sunny day at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, a team of specialized zookeepers collected breast milk samples from two female elephants nursing their 1-year-old calves. Unlike the mechanical breast pumps used by human mothers, or the machines employed by dairy cow farmers, the process requires hands-on expertise. It's something of a mammoth effort: Success depends a lot upon how the elephant mothers, called dams, are feeling that day.