Nine months may seem like a long time to carry a baby in your belly, but for an elephant that's not much more than a trimester. Twenty-two months is the average gestation for an elephant, so even though officials at the Oklahoma City Zoo announced yesterday that their 18-year-old elephant, Asha, is seven months pregnant, the due date is still more than a year away: December 2014.
The zoo released photographic evidence of the pregnancy, a sonogram from June where the little elephant's trunk is just barely visible. If all goes well, it will be Asha's second calf. "It's exciting that Malee, Asha’s first calf, may get to be a big sister. She’ll be three years old when the calf arrives, so it will be great for her to have a sibling to play and socialize with,” said Nick Newby, Pachyderm Supervisor, on the zoo's website.
Previously on PhotoBlog:
