SYRACUSE - A special team of doctors removed a dead 330-pound calf from the womb of a 29-year-old Asian elephant stalled in labor for four days in a successful rare surgery Thursday at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo.

Zoo staff were walking Romani around in the elephant barn about 30 minutes after the four-hour long surgery to widen her birth canal, an operation similar to a human episiotomy, said zoo spokeswoman Sarah Fedele.

“Her vital signs are very good,” said Fedele.

“It's disappointing that her calf did not survive,” Fedele said. “But there's a big feeling of relief here that Romani is doing well.”

The female calf, meanwhile, was taken to the Cornell University veterinary school for a necropsy. Doctors will try to determine when the calf died and why it became trapped inside the birth canal, she said. One theory is that one of its knees became bent, Fedele said.

Romani had carried the calf for nearly two years and was three weeks past the “due” date calculated by zoo staff.

Romani was put under 24-hour watch Monday night after veterinarians tried to induce labor with hormone shots two nights in a row. Even with the injections, the elephant's contractions weren't long enough or strong enough to deliver the calf. Romani had three previous successful births - 1991, 1995 and 2002 - although labor was induced in each case.

While the episode unfolded, zoo officials were unable to tell if the calf was alive or not. Normal fetal monitoring does not work for elephants, making it difficult to determine the condition of the fetus. They knew, though, that the longer they waited, the greater the risk to both fetus and mother.

On Wednesday, zoo staff saw Romani's white blood cell count increase and became concerned about a possible infection. It was decided to try surgery.

Over the past decade, the operation was previously conducted on elephants in North America seven other times, with six of the mothers surviving, Fedele said. She did not know if any of the calves survived.

The team assembled at Rosamond Gifford consisted of eight veterinarians and reproductive specialists, led by Dr. Dennis Schmitt of Missouri State University, one of the world's leading experts on Asian elephant breeding. All members of the team had taken part in performing the procedure previously, said Zoo Director Chuck Doyle.

To perform the surgery, zoo officials transformed the elephant barn into a high-tech surgical center.

Fedele said Romani will be closely monitored and kept inside for 10 days. It will take her three to six months to fully recover from the surgery, Fedele said.

Rosamond Gifford has had five previous births and is considered one of the world's premier breeders of Asian elephants, an endangered species with about 52,000 remaining in the wild. Its resident bull, Indy, has sired 10 offspring, five of which survived.

Last August, the zoo's world-renowned elephant breeding program suffered another blow when a healthy five-day-old baby bull fell into the elephant yard pool and drowned. Federal regulators fined the zoo $10,800 because there was no barrier around the pool.

On the Net:

Rosamond Gifford Zoo: www.rosamondgiffordzoo.org