Some time ago there was an article in the LLL magazine "New Beginnings" by a
leader who had aided a zoo to get a newborn elephant to nurse.  They used a
breast pump on the mother, feeding her bananas to keep her calm while this
was going on, and did "finger feeding" of the baby, with some sort of SNS
they rigged up (obviously it would have to deliver milk more quickly than
the ones for humans).  As I recall, one day the leader was finger feeding
the baby near the mother, and managed to transfer the baby to the breast.

Doesn't all this sound just like dealing with human breastfeeding problems.

Elephants, of course, have long gestation periods, and long development
periods to adulthood, are very social, and have VERY LONG MEMORIES (yes
really).  When they are raised outside of a breeding group of elephants,
they know nothing about breastfeeding.

Margaret K.K. Radcliffe               [log in to unmask]
Dept. of Mining & Minerals Engr.
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA