![\"Smithsonian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/elephant-national-zoo-bc-20251124-98625e.jpg\")
An elephant is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoo, in Washington D.C., on July 10, 2023.Anadolu Agency via Getty Images file<\/p>\nThe Smithsonian\u2019s National Zoo, in Washington, D.C. has announced one of its elephants is pregnant, the first time a baby elephant will be born at the zoo in 25 years.<\/p>\n
The zoo says 12-year-old Nhi Linh (pronounced Nee Lin) will welcome her first baby sometime this winter, although it\u2019s unclear if she will deliver a boy or a girl.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no words, really, to describe how excited we are to welcome a new addition here at the zoo,\u201d Robbie Clark, assistant curator, Asian elephants and elephant manager, told TODAY in a story that aired Nov. 24.<\/p>\n
It marks a landmark moment for Asian elephants, an endangered species with an estimated number of fewer than 50,000 living in the wild. Dr. Donald Neiffer, who heads a team of veterinarians tasked with taking of the elephant herd\u2019s care at the zoo, says the upcoming birth is a big feat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is huge, and certainly for our facility, we haven\u2019t had a baby on the ground for quite some time,\u201d he told TODAY.<\/p>\n
Nhi Linh bred with the zoo\u2019s sole bull elephant, Spike. Doctors now focus on ensuring the baby is healthy, utilizing methods similar to what human mothers experience, including undergoing ultrasounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very similar,\u201d veterinarian Dr. James Steeil told TODAY. \u201cThe only thing is, in a human you can see the entire fetus, where we see small portions of this fetus.\u201d<\/p>\n
An elephant is seen at the Smithsonian National Zoo, in Washington D.C., on July 10, 2023.Anadolu Agency via Getty Images file<\/p>\n
Tony Barthel and Robbie Clark serve as curators at the zoo, overseeing management of the elephant herd, a job that requires them to teach the elephants to voluntarily take part in the care they receive. <\/p>\n
That practice helps them with Nhi Linh’s ultrasounds, including one done while TODAY was on hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you watch that ultrasound, Nhi Linh was being reinforced with lots of our favorite food items, and through repetition and practice, we\u2019re allowed to get ourselves to where we need to be through that ultrasound monitoring, but that allows us to do everything from skin care, tooth care, the ultrasounds,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
Nhi Lin and her baby are so large that pictures are needed from different angles, but even that only provides a glimpse as to what the fetus looks like.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis fetus probably weighs somewhere between 150 and 175 pounds, and a full-term human fetus weighs seven pounds,\u201d Steill said. \u201cWe don\u2019t get a full elephant image at this stage of gestation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Steill is pleased by what he saw on the ultrasound they shared with TODAY.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything\u2019s looking positive in regards to where the fetus is positioned and how it looks on ultrasound,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything right now is pointing to … we expect a normal delivery,\u201d Neiffer said.<\/p>\n
The zoo is also working on making sure the elephant enclosure is ready to house a baby. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to think about gaps that are less than a foot wide throughout our facility, that a young newborn calf could slip through,\u201d Clark said. <\/p>\n
And while this impending birth is an exciting development for elephants, it also represents hope for other animals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tools we\u2019re able to develop here, and the science we\u2019re able to do here, has direct implications to those other populations,\u201d Barthel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Smithsonian\u2019s National Zoo, in Washington, D.C. has announced one of its elephants is pregnant, the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-281097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}