The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium welcomed a highly anticipated pachyderm bundle of joy yesterday when 25-year-old African elephant Savannah gave birth to a baby girl.
Zoo staff would not reveal the newborn's name or weight, but said baby, mother and father -- Jackson, the zoo's resident bull elephant -- were in good health.
"She's doing fine right now," spokeswoman Tracy Gray said, reserving other details about the zoo's new addition for a news conference today.
The 4:36 p.m. birth was the first of an elephant at the zoo since Savannah delivered Callee in 2000. Another elephant, Moja, delivered Victoria in 1999 and also is expected to give birth soon.
Savannah's newborn was expected to weigh in at more than 200 pounds, and zoo staff had a hunch it would be a girl. An analysis of blood samples gave handlers an 80 percent certainty of its sex. Harder to pinpoint was the baby's birthday. Zoo staffers last month said they were relying on daily blood tests, analyzed in the zoo's own lab for the first time, to track Savannah's progesterone levels, which drop when birth is imminent.
Jackson, father to both Savannah and Moja's babies, was using a less scientific method, they said, smelling the pregnant elephants' urine for hints of dropping progesterone levels, a sign for bull elephants that it's time to breed again.
Savannah's 211/2 month pregnancy was longer than when she carried Callee, according to the zoo's Web site. Several weeks ago, Savannah's progesterone levels dropped but then spiked back up and remained stable, the site says. But "based on the elephants' behavior and the intuition of the keepers who care for them every day," zoo staff had been expecting her to deliver any time.
Monitoring and care of Savannah was important because the mortality rate among newborn elephants is about 30 percent, according to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Savannah also had a stillborn baby in 1998.
It was unknown last night when the baby would make its public debut.
"If all goes well with the births, the keepers will watch the bonding processes between mom and baby, as well as the herd, before deciding when to put the babies out on exhibit for the public," the Web site says. "If the babies are healthy and all goes well, they could come out into the Elephant Yard as early as three days after births."
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