Lucy crushed by 'miracle' baby elephant

Asian Elephant Keeper Lucy Melo. Picture: Jeff Darmanin Source: The Daily Telegraph

Pathi Harn just after he was born f / Pic: Rick Stevens . Source: The Daily Telegraph

A female keeper is in a critical condition after being crushed by an elephant at Sydney's Taronga Zoo.

Lucy Melo playing with one of her charges. Picture: Jeff Darmanin Source: The Daily Telegraph

SHE calls them her family - the eight Asian elephants which are as familiar to her as children.

The special relationship Lucy Melo shares with her gentle giants is on show every day at Taronga Zoo, where she feeds them, bathes them and plays with them.

Yesterday the senior elephant keeper was left fighting for her life after the youngest male, Pathi Harn, crushed her against a fencepost during morning training.

The two-year-old elephant is better known as Mr Shuffles, the miracle baby pronounced dead in his mother's womb.

Shaken zoo director Cameron Kerr said that Pathi Harn had "challenged" Ms Melo, 40.

Fellow keepers rushed in from an adjoining stall when they heard Ms Melo's screams about 11.30am.

With Ms Melo's husband, Taronga Zoo's elephant manager Gary Miller, nearby, the two keepers moved the elephant away and the area went into lockdown at its busiest time, as school groups were turned away and feeding time cancelled.

When the first ambulance crew arrived, Ms Melo was conscious. Her only external injuries were a few bruises and she was able to tell paramedics what had happened. Then Mr Miller, 61, could only watch on helplessly as her condition declined and she went into cardiac arrest. An intensive care paramedic team had just arrived.

Ambulance Inspector Andrew Wood said it took paramedics five minutes to revive Ms Melo, who suffered severe "crush-type" injuries to her chest.

As paramedics fought to save her life in the back of the ambulance, Ms Melo was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital, where last night she remained on life support. Her condition was said to be critical but stable.

Insp Wood said it was unusual for a person's heart to be stopped for so long and crews continued to provide her lungs with oxygen.

"She has pretty serious injuries," he said.

Mr Kerr said it was not known what had prompted the young elephant's action.

Ms Melo, one of the world's leading elephant experts, has shared her passion for these massive animals with Mr Miller - with whom she has lived and worked since they met at a New Mexico zoo in 2000, when she answered an advertisement for a job.

She has spoken tenderly of her charges in the past.

"Elephants are regarded as an advanced skill," she said. "Physically, emotionally and intellectually, they are demanding. They are so incredibly intelligent, they're right up there with dolphins and primates."

Ms Melo has worked for the zoo since 2004, after she and Mr Miller were headhunted to travel to Thailand to choose five Asian elephants for a breeding program at the zoo. At the time, the couple was working at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida.

It took more than a year, as they slept on a coconut husk mattress and even in the back of a truck with the elephants, before they had their elephants: matriarch Porntip, Pak Boon, Tan Mo, Thong Dee and the male, Gung.

In March 2010, the herd grew when Porntip gave birth to Pathi Harn - Thai for "Miracle".

He was a miracle by name and by nature, making world headlines for being born against all the odds after he was pronounced dead in his mother's womb.

Mr Miller had been staying at the elephant barn almost 24 hours a day for the nine days of Porntip's labour, with the unborn calf twisted inside her.

Having given up on a live calf, Mr Miller and another keeper returned to find that Porntip had given birth by herself - and the baby elephant was alive.

His left side had been left weakened and, when he made his public debut, the baby elephant endeared himself to the public with the wonky walk that earned him the nickname Mr Shuffles.

Ms Melo was among the zookeepers who coaxed and coddled the little calf, massaging limbs that had been twisted in his mother's womb, in his first days.

She has been at Pathi Harn's side almost every day since.

During their morning routine, Ms Melo would ensure Pathi Harn was walked, bathed and fed before enjoying his playtime, which included kicking a ball and pushing and pulling logs around.

It was during this routine yesterday that Pathi Harn turned on her.

A witness said they later saw Porntip "bash" Pathi Harn over the head with her trunk soon after yesterday's accident.

"The little elephant had sad eyes. They all looked sad, actually, like they knew something bad had happened," the witness said.

On Facebook late yesterday, elephant keepers around the world were sending messages of support.

"Sometimes elephants are just playing and don't realise their strength, could be as simple as that," wrote one keeper in Africa.

 

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