On July 15, Emmen Zoo in the Netherlands welcomed a healthy male Asian Elephant calf. Mother Htoo Yin Aye gave birth outside at 6 p.m. as visitors looked on. The calf is the 25th elephant to be born at Emmen Zoo. He enjoys spending time outside every day with his mother, father Radza, sister, and two older brothers. He is pictured here with his family at just one day old. 

The calf weighed about 220 pounds (100 kg) at birth, an average size. It takes a long time to grow such a big baby; the gestation period of an elephant is longer than that of any other mammal, lasting 22 months. They are also long-lived animals, sometimes reaching 70 years of age in the wild. Asian Elephants are an endangered species, living in small, isolated populations in south and southeast Asia. They are similar to African Elephants, but have a smaller body size and more rounded ears, which they use to radiate excess heat from the body. There may be only 30,000 to 50,000 Asian Elephants left in the wild. Wide-ranging herbivores, they are important seed-dispersers that help to maintain biodiversity in grasslands and forests.  

Photo credits: Emmen Zoo

See more photos of the family after the fold.