Dallas Zoo Dallas Zoo News 2023

African elephant “Mlilo” has given birth to a healthy male calf! From an email sent to the zoo’s mailing list:

We are thrilled to announce our African elephant, Mlilo, gave birth to a healthy, 290-pound baby boy on Sunday, Feb. 26. Both mom and baby are doing well.

The animal team had been closely monitoring Mlilo for several weeks as her birth window neared. Signs of labor started in the early hours of Sunday morning, around 2 a.m. Her labor progressed quickly, and baby boy arrived shortly after, around 2:27 a.m. With the help of mom, the little one was able to stand up within 30 minutes of birth and started nursing right away.

Zola, another female in our herd, supported Mlilo through the birth, just as elephants do in the wild. Elephants are known to celebrate the birth of a new calf in the herd, and Zola has really shown her happiness for our baby boy. The little one follows both mom and Zola around, and when mom needs a break, Zola watches him so she can eat.

Our baby elephant has already started hitting his milestones! He has begun learning to "tusk" the ground, a very common elephant behavior where they use their tusks to manipulate their environment. (Baby elephants don't have tusks yet, but they will start growing in at a rate of one to three inches every year.)

We’re giving mom and baby boy all the space and quiet time they need to bond with each other, as well as the rest of the herd. It is such a joy to welcome this beautiful elephant calf to our elephant herd!
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Kudu21 said:
African elephant “Mlilo” has given birth to a healthy male calf! From an email sent to the zoo’s mailing list:
Click to expand...
@John Marchwick said in the African Elephant Population thread that on March 17th, the zoo announced that the bull calf born February 26th has been named Okubili, which is Zulu for "two" or "duplicate" (he is his dam's second calf)! I think that is a great name for him!
Dallas Zoo announces new baby elephant's name
 
Another giraffe calf was born!

Mom, “Chrystal”, gave birth to a healthy female calf on March 19th. The sire is “Tebogo” who also sired the female calf born in October, “Nea”. The new calf and her mom are currently bonding behind the scenes but will go out on habitat soon (as reported on the zoo’s social media pages).
 
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