elephant calf

この間、参観した公開授業（小学校）での一コマです。お父さんかお母さんが外国の方と思われる児童がアシスタントの先生に「象の赤ちゃんは英語で何というの？」とたずねました。アシスタントはしばらく考えた後にbaby elephantと答えましたが、その後で「ライオン、クマ、キツネなどの赤ちゃんはcubと言うので、象もelephant cubよ。」と教えていました。
これに対して、UG先生が即座にnudgeされ、耳打ちされました（イヤ〜ン！）。「cubはライオンや熊などの野獣の赤ちゃんや子には使えるが、ゾウには使えないゾウ！」
帰宅して辞書をチェックすると、まさにその通りで、elephant cubとは言わず、通常はbaby elephantと言うことがわかりました（例：Baby Elephant Walk「子象の行進」 ヘンリーマンシーニ）。さらに形式的に使うときにはelephant calfを使うこともわかりました。
calfは「子牛」や「（人体の）ふくらはぎ（通例calves）」でよく知られていますが、クジラ、キリン、ゾウ、バッファローなどの大型有胎盤哺乳動物（large placental mammal）の赤ちゃん・子にはこのcalfを使うのです（これも先生からの受け売り）。
ちなみに本日のMDNにたまたま子ゾウを扱った記事がありましたので、貼り付けておきます。以上、なんでもないことかもしれませんが、森羅万象、あらゆることに即応できる英語力の必要性、そしてA little knowledge is a dangerous thing.を痛感させられた一コマでした。（Sugiuchi）

6-week-old lone elephant calf dies in Zimbabwe

In this photo supplied by Mwanga Lodge, Shamva, Zimbabwe, a baby elephant is bottle-fed by a carer shortly before falling ill in late January. (AP Photo-Mwanga Lodge-Jo-Anne Lamb)
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Conservationists in Zimbabwe said around-the-clock efforts to save a baby elephant, separated from his mother on a busy highway, have failed. The six-week-old calf who has been hand fed for three weeks has died, apparently from pneumonia.

Conservation expert Gordon Putterill said that elephants are notoriously difficult to hand rear, unlike other wild animals. The baby calf was named Kunda, or Triumph in the local Shona language, for his determination to survive after he was found alone on the highway, he said. He died Wednesday.

Kunda's mother may have been injured by a truck after the herd fled from a busy trucking highway in northwestern Zimbabwe, uncharacteristically leaving him behind, trackers said. The herd's tracks led deep into the thick bush several miles (kilometers) away from where the baby calf was found.

With shoulders that measured just 2 feet 9 inches (80 centimeters) across, Putterill said Kunda touched the hearts of all those who tried to save him.

Kunda gained more than 40 pounds (20 kilograms) while in human care to reach about 200 pounds (100 kilograms) in weight, Putterill said. But then he got diarrhea despite receiving specialized soy milk, palm and coconut oil derivatives and nutrients prescribed by top veterinarians in eastern and southern Africa. The veterinarians, however, had warned that it was rare for young elephants to survive without a mother.

"The poor little guy looked so frail," said Putterill, a veteran game ranger based at the Mwanga Lodge conservancy about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Harare.

The stomach condition sapped Kunda's strength but he recovered. Soon after, though, his temperature soared and he began breathing noisily as pneumonia set it in.

Kunda was fed and given medication intravenously but his "vital signs" deteriorated and he died peacefully in his sleep, Putterill said.

Kunda had very little control of his small trunk but, like human babies, "sampled new things with his mouth," Putterill said.

"Had his mother been feeding him, he would have been boosted by her antibodies," he said.

Kunda snored at night, played in water, squealed when he was frustrated, didn't want to be alone in his new environment and liked people around him. The calf had a character all his own that deeply affected his human helpers.

"Kunda became an ambassador for elephant conservation. One must not give up on trying to help orphaned and vulnerable wildlife despite the heartbreaks," he said.

(Mainichi Japan) February 12, 2012