The unexpected death of an elephant calf shortly after it was born at the Copenhagen Zoo on Sunday night was caused by a heart defect, veterinarians said yesterday.

Zoo officials had expected to find that the elephant had been stillborn, but a post-mortem found the animal was missing a dividing wall between two of the chambers of its heart, a birth defect veterinarians described as “rare”.

They said the elephant had also oxygen in its lungs, which indicated that the calf had been breathing at the time of birth. 

Ekstra Bladet