It's a girl! Late Friday night Ellie, the St. Louis Zoo's 42-year-old Asian elephant, gave birth.
"Mother and baby are both doing very well," said Curator of Mammals Martha Fischer in a press release. "The baby appears healthy and is already walking around well."
The 251 pound calf is nearly 4 feet tall. The unnamed calf is the third for Ellie and the fourth for the calf's father, 20-year old Raja.
Though Asian elephants in the womb are fully developed at 19 months, the mothers gestate for up to two years in order for the calf to grow tall enough to nurse. A calf will nurse (with its mouth, not its trunk) between two to four years.
"An experienced mother and grandmother, Ellie was, of course, very nurturing, caring for her newborn baby from the very beginning," said Fischer. "She did a great job of carrying and giving birth to a beautiful baby girl."
Asian elephants are critically endangered.
"There are only between 35,000 and 50,000 Asian elephants left in the wild, and they are facing extinction," said Dana Brown, president and CEO of the Zoo.
The public will be able to vote online to name the new calf.