The Smithsonian’s National Zoo announced Friday that its less than 2-week-old female Asian elephant has been named Linh Mai, Vietnamese for spirit blossom.
The 308-pound calf was the first elephant born at the zoo in almost 25 years and only the third elephant birth in the zoo’s 136-year history.
The calf’s parents are 12-year-old mother Nhi Linh and 44-year-old father Spike.
The elephant care team had selected four possible names, inspired by her mother’s Vietnamese heritage:
Linh Mai, which refers to a blossom associated with the Lunar New Year.
Thảo Nhi, gentle and beloved.
Tú Anh, talented or gifted and intelligent.
Tuyết, referring to snow.
Zoo fans were invited to vote for their favorite name by making a donation of $5 or more on the zoo’s website. Linh Mai won, with donations of $22,885, the zoo said in a statement. The total raised was $58,892.
All funds raised will support the zoo’s Asian elephant care and conservation program, the zoo said. Asian elephants are endangered, with fewer than 50,000 left worldwide.
The days since the calf was born on Feb 2. have not all gone smoothly, Tony Barthel, the zoo’s senior curator, said in a post on the zoo’s website Thursday.
“Shortly after Nhi Linh delivered the calf, she exhibited some behaviors that caused us to move the newborn to an adjacent enclosure for her safety,” he wrote.
“Nhi Linh has never experienced a birth, nor had she interacted with a calf before,” he wrote. “It is quite common for first-time moms to need help being receptive to their calf.”
“Ideally, an Asian elephant mother and her calf would gently explore one another, and she would have nursed the newborn,” he wrote. “In this instance, Nhi Linh swung her trunk, kicked her feet and threw hay … behaviors [that] showed us she was not ready to safely share space with the newborn.”
A “howdy” wall between enclosures has allowed the calf to interact safely with its mother and other elephants in the zoo’s herd. “They are able to see, smell and hear one another at all times,” Barthel wrote.
The calf is very curious about the keepers and often stands a few feet away from them, he wrote. She gets a bottle every two hours.
The zoo said Linh Mai will make her public debut this spring.
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