Baby elephant makes Earth Day debut at National Zoo

WASHINGTON — Spring rains brought some special April flowers to Washington, D.C., this year. It’s a two-month-old Asian elephant named Linh Mai, which means “spirit flower” in Vietnamese.

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Lin Mai will make her public debut at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo on Wednesday, allowing visitors to see the zoo’s first elephant born in nearly 25 years.

A rare birth in captivity and the baby’s Earth Day debut highlight the plight of the endangered Asian elephant. There are only an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 individuals left in the wild, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the World Wildlife Fund says their population has declined by about 50 percent over the past 60 to 75 years.

Niranga Jayasinghe, director of the World Wildlife Fund’s wildlife conservation team, said the biggest threat facing elephants is habitat loss. And as their habitat shrinks, Asian elephant populations are also increasing relatively slowly, due to their long gestation periods and the need to raise their young for long periods of time.

“Female elephants carry their babies until they are up to two years old. Even after the babies are born, they need care and protection, so they require long-term care,” Jayasinghe said. “And every new person is important because of that long gap.”

Zoo staff are caring for Linmayi around the clock, feeding and socializing her. The baby elephants spend their days gulping down bottles of milk, exploring their enclosures, and interacting with the elephant herd with the help of their caretakers.

But Lin Mai’s integration quickly hit a hurdle when the zoo had to separate her from her mother, Nie Lin, 12, after she showed signs of aggression towards her calf. Another elephant, Swarna, 52, played the role of mother.

“Under these circumstances, I couldn’t be happier with what we’re seeing today,” said Robbie Clark, the zoo’s elephant manager. “Swarna stepped in as a surrogate aunt, and Lin Mai is thriving today.”

In an update on the zoo’s website, Clark said staff witnessed Swarna “intentionally waking up to check on Rinmayi before lying down to sleep.” Pairs of elephants are together “basically 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” with the older elephant teaching the baby “that he’s actually an elephant too,” he said.

One of the key skills Lin Mai is learning from Swarna is how to use your core.

“It takes a lot of time and finesse to learn the skill of using your nose for all sorts of things, including eating, drinking, breathing, and communicating, but Lin Mai will look to Swarna to learn how,” Clark told NBC News.

The zoo hopes Linmay will eventually be able to reunite the calf with its mother, but for now it doesn’t want to force the relationship and potentially further damage it, the zoo said.

Calf rejection is “not necessarily common, but it’s not unheard of, especially for first-time mothers,” Clark said.

Prior to Linh Mai’s public release, the zoo allowed zookeepers to observe the baby in her enclosure as a gentle way to introduce her to a wider audience. The zoo monitors Rimmai for signs of stress, and Clark said Rimmai calmed down within the first 30 minutes of experiencing large groups. Zoo Director Brandi Smith said staff will be observing Rinmay “every moment” to see how she reacts to the public.

“Right now, she’s a bit of a ham,” Smith said, explaining that Lin Mai “seems to be enjoying the attention.”

Jayasinghe said that if people want to help Asian elephants, one of the first steps they should take is to “learn and understand that Asian elephants are endangered and yet they don’t get a lot of attention or support.”

“I think zoo elephants, in some ways, play an important role in fostering people’s attachment to elephants,” she says.