00:00So today's a big day not only for the National Zoo but also the visitors here at the zoo because
00:07we're having our public debut for our baby elephant, Lin Mai. She was born on February 2nd.
00:13She's the first elephant calf we've had born here in 25 years. So it's a huge deal for us,
00:22for the population of elephants under human care and for the species. And we're really,
00:27really excited that everyone's here to come out to see her in person.
00:32Absolutely gorgeous and moving around and very exciting to watch.
00:36Yeah, and it was really cool because I learned that she puts on like one to two pounds a day,
00:41but she's just the cutest thing ever. So this was a great experience for us.
00:45Asian elephants are a critically endangered species. It's really hard for us to know how many individuals
00:51are still alive, but we estimate 30 to 50,000 individuals both in the wild and under human care.
01:00It is just incredible to see her up close and in person and just to see the bonding between
01:05her aunt and her. It was really incredible, magical. I thought it was absolutely beautiful
01:10to see how tiny she was and she was actually a bigger calf. She was 308 pounds when she was
01:16born,
01:16but usually they're 200 to 250. So it's very cute to see how big she already was.
01:21So Lin Mai is a hoot. She's a fantastic little elephant to get to know.
01:25She's thriving under her current conditions. We would consider her to be extremely smart.
01:32She's had some great intellectual milestones already. She's very curious. She's learning how to be quite
01:38playful with the enrichment and the environment that she's living in and she's confident.
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