Columbus Zoo To Welcome Baby Elephant Conceived In An Unusual Way

COLUMBUS, OH — Mother and calf are doing fine, according to the regular ultrasound examinations that Phoebe, an Asian elephant at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, has voluntarily submitted to over the next few months.

Elephants are pregnant longer than any mammal on Earth, carrying their babies for about 22 months.

Zoo officials expect Phoebe’s bundle of joy — and by bundle, they mean an infant weighing between 200 and 300 pounds and standing 3 feet tall — to arrive in mid-to-late June.

The ultrasound imaging isn’t being used to determine the gender of the calf, but to monitor its development. The baby elephant’s gender will instead be revealed at birth. The ultrasound examinations will continue, and Phoebe will be monitored around the clock in the later stages of her pregnancy, the zoo said.

The elephant’s entire pregnancy has been centered on laboratories.

The Species Survival Plan, a program coordinated by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to maintain genetic diversity in threatened and endangered species in human care, arranged the courtship of Phoebe and Hank, both 33.

Their attempts to breed naturally were unsuccessful, so the zoo turned to artificial insemination, a procedure that is still relatively rare in elephants and largely unsuccessful, especially in Asian elephants.

The procedure is most common in African elephants, though success is still rare, with only 20 procedures resulting in pregnancy. In Asian elephants, there have been 10 successful artificial inseminations — two of them at the Columbus Zoo, including Phoebe’s pregnancy in 2016.

Attempts to artificially inseminate elephants are becoming more frequent to bolster the numbers of endangered elephants, whose populations continue to rapidly decline in their native range, the zoo said. Asian elephants are endangered, with fewer than 40,000 individuals remaining, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which puts out the Red List of Threatened Species.

Their decline is due to a variety of factors, including habitat loss and degradation, and poaching.

African elephants are more plentiful, with about 400,000 individuals remaining, and are listed as threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

“Every elephant calf is precious and vital to the survival of this endangered species,” Columbus Zoo President and CEO Tom Stalf said in a news release. “We are proud to celebrate Phoebe’s pregnancy with our fellow zoological colleagues and conservation partners, as well as our Central Ohio community and beyond.

“Conservation is a collective effort, and thanks to everyone’s involvement and support, together we can continue working toward achieving these milestones that contribute to efforts protecting the future of elephants and other incredible species.”

The zoo is a longtime supporter of conservation efforts that directly benefit Asian and African elephants, including to the International Elephant Foundation and in grants to support research projects focusing on reducing human-elephant conflicts and monitoring elephant populations in their native ranges.

The zoo staff also leads an AZA initiative known as SAFE (Saving Animals from Extinction) Asian Elephant Program.

The calf is Phoebe’s fifth. She has a son, Beco, who resides with her at the Columbus Zoo. A daughter, Ellie, died suddenly in 2018 due to a bacterial infection.