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IN A SUN-DRENCHED enclosure of the Portland Zoo, Belle walks her baby, Packy, while visitors marvel at the sight of a tiny, new-born elephant — said to be the first domestic-born pachyderm ever to survive. Packy's advent into the zoo world was recorded on 16mm color film by Portland cinematographer Bob Snethen.
FILMING THE BIRTH OF AN ELEPHANT
635-day cinematographic vigil nets rare motion pictures of Portland Zoo pachyderm’s blessed event.
By BOB
JJob Snethen patiently waited 635 days to shoot one of the most extraordinary motion picture scenes on record — the birth of an elephant.
Then, when the time came, he had about 30 seconds in which to expose 17 feet of color film. The memorable event, which unfolded in a darkened interior of the Port¬ land (Ore.) City Zoo, was shot through a foggy, double-glass win¬ dow. The scene is now the climax of a documentary film for which
ALLEN
cinematographer-producer Snethen has yet to find a buyer. Yet, he would do it all over again, he says.
The reason: Snethen accom¬ plished a cinematographic first. He is believed to be the first camera¬ man to record the birth of an elephant with a a motion picture camera. When “Packy” was born to “Belle” at the Portland City Zoo, during the spring of 1962, it marked the first time that an ele¬ phant, born in this country, had
survived. In fact, so little was known about the natal habits of elephants that Belle’s doctors were hard-pressed to find out what could be expected of her. The last birth of an elephant in the United States was at the Salt Lake City Zoo in 1918. However the mother pachyderm trampled one of her newborn calves to death and none of the others sur¬ vived infancy.
The color film of Packy’s birth which Snethen has put together traces Belle through her period of gestation and Packy through birth and early life. It is certainly the most authoritative documentary ever done in any format on this topic. Snethen’s technical advisors were among the world’s foremost experts on animal gestation.
Packy’s birth drew world-wide attention to the Portland Zoo. How¬ ever, only four persons other than Snethen sat the long nightly vigils
Continued on Page 422
AS THE TIME FOR Packy’s birth became imminent, cinematographer Snethen, with his Bolex-16 poised for action, maintained a 'round the clock vigil at the zoo. (Photos by David Falconer.)
AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, JULY, 1963
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