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The calf is due in late 2024 or early 2025, the Denver Zoo said.
DENVER — An elephant at the Denver Zoo is expecting his very first calf – and he’s never even met the expecting mother – she’s miles away, living out-of-state in Missouri’s Saint Louis Zoo.
With the help of artificial insemination, Jade, a 17-year-old Asian elephant, is 10 months pregnant. Denver took samples from its 14-year-old, male Asian elephant, Jack, and flew them out to St. Louis.
Jack and Jade’s baby, both of the elephants’ first offspring, is due in late 2024 or early 2025, the Denver Zoo said.
Jack has something in common with his baby-to-be — he was the first elephant born via artificial insemination at Ontario’s African Lion Safari in 2009, the zoo said.
He moved to Colorado in 2018, the zoo said, joining Denver’s “bachelor herd.”
Denver’s zoo is home to male elephants only: Groucho, Bodhi, Billy, Chuck, Jake and Duncan – all the members of the zoo’s Toyota Elephant Passage, the zoo said. Although they’re all bull elephants, the zoo said their genes are critical to the conservation of the endangered Asian elephant species.
The zoo said its research and care of these males is a crucial part of The Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s Asian Elephant Survival Plan. They Denver Zoo is the first accredited institution by the association to socialize Asian bull elephants, the zoo said.
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