Baby elephant born in Ouwehands Zoo; calf already up and about

The newest addition to the Ouwehands Zoo in Rhenen is the male baby elephant that was born to the African elephant Duna at 1:10 a.m. on Monday, the zoo announced. Both mother and calf were said to be recovering well.

Zoo visitors can already see the baby elephant. The inside enclosure was closed for the upcoming days to not disturb both Duna and her calf. The pregnancy took 20 months, slightly shorter than the regular pregnancy duration for elephants of 22 to 23 months.

The father of the newly born, Tusker, came to Ouewhands from a German zoo in 2019 as part of an international breeding program.

In the wild, African elephants are often killed for their tusks or because they set on the crops of the local population. The Ouwehands Zoo has worked together with the Big Life Foundation (BLF) to ensure that the protection of African elephants in their natural habitat.

Both the African forest elephant and the African savanna elephant are endangered species. In Africa, there are around 415 thousand elephants left.