The Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC, announced today that one of its Asian elephants, Nhi Linh (pronounced NEE-lin), is pregnant and could give birth to the first baby calf born at the facility in nearly a quarter century. If the pregnancy continues on track, the calf should be born between mid-January and early March.

According to a press release, the zoo’s 44-year-old male elephant, Spike, mated with 12-year-old Nhi Linh in April 2024. Asian elephants gestate for an average of 18 to 22 months.

Spike, who is on loan from a zoo in Miami, came to the National Zoo in 2018 from Busch Gardens in Florida. Nhi Linh and her mother, Trong Nhi (trong-NEE), arrived at the National Zoo in 2022 as a gift from the Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands. The two Dutch elephants were brought to th

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