Early Tuesday morning, a new female African elephant calf was born at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, boosting its pachyderm population to 13.
The calf's mother, Swazi, delivered the 205-pound baby at 3:39 a.m. and within minutes, the calf was on her feet, Safari Park reported. The last calf to be born at the park was last November, said spokeswoman Jenny Mehlow.
While Swazi's water broke early Sunday morning, signs of labor did not begin until nearly 3 a.m. on Tuesday. The average gestation period for African elephants is 649 days or 22 months.
Swazi's new addition falls within the average weight range of a newborn calf, which averages 200 to 268 pounds. It is Swazi's second offspring. Her first was 2-1/2-year-old Macembe (ma-calm-bay), who was present at the time of his sister's birth.
Safari Park officials reported that after the birth, Mac was moved to an adjacent yard with two other young elephants to keep him company. All of the youngsters appeared curious and gently reached their trunks out to touch and smell the calf, Safari Park said.
Swazi and her calf will continue to bond in a separate yard from the rest of the herd while the newborn nurses and learns to follow her mother closely. The family can be seen at the park's elephant habitat or on its Elephant Cam website.
Safari Park's elephant population now consists of four adults and nine youngsters. The adults were rescued in 2003 from the Kingdom of Swaziland, which, because of its lack of space and long periods of drought, was considered an unsuitable habitat for a large elephant population. Swaziland's Big Game Parks had the option of either killing the four adults or exporting them to a zoo willing to care for them.
Since their arrival, they have given birth to nine baby calves, Mehlow said.