The Houston Zoo welcomes baby elephant Kirby

The Houston Zoo is going to need a very large rattle for its latest addition. Friday 15 November at At 3 p.m., the zoo’s amiable Asian elephant matriarch Shanti, 34, gave birth to a baby girl named Kirby. This is Shanti’s seventh baby with long-term pachyderm boyfriend Thailand, 58.

Kirby weighed 314 pounds at birth, quite a bit smaller than her older sibling Nelson, born in 2020, and slightly larger than her older sister Joy, born in 2017. Shanti’s pregnancy lasted 21 months, a common length for Asian elephants but still the second longest gestation in the mammal class after their African cousins.

Within six minutes Kirby was on her feet and she was walking within half an hour. The birth took place in the McNair Asian Elephant Habitat cow shed, where Shanti and Kirby will spend several days before being released for public display.

The Houston Zoo’s elephant breeding program has been an important part of increasing the population of Bornean elephants since it began in 2007. Portions of the proceeds go to the work of Dr. Nurzhafarina “Farina” Othman, who specializes in local education and activism in Borneo to ease tensions between humans and elephants. Elephants have been known to decimate crops leading to conflict, Othman’s work has helped landowners in Borneo finance solutions that keep the elephant population alive. The zoo’s support was partly responsible for a doubling of the Bornean population in 2018.

Elephants have been a part of the Houston Zoo since its founding. In 2017, the zoo opened the McNair Asian Elephant Habitat, a massive new enclosure with walkways for visitors and pools for the elephants to frolic in and escape the Texas heat. The exhibit includes everything from fountains to a specialized puzzle tree that elephants can blow into for treats.

Zoo has also been at the forefront of animal medicine. In June, the 40-year-old Asian elephant had Tess received the first ever mRNA vaccine for elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) 1A. Baylor College of Medicine pioneered this fight against a particularly deadly disease among elephants. All in all, it’s been a big year for the zoo’s biggest residents.