CAMBRIDGE, Ont - A rare Asian elephant born at a southern Ontario safari park last month is the first third-generation calf born on the continent.
The 107-kilogram male was born July 15 to an 11-year-old female named Mali, said Chuck Doyle, director of a New York state zoo that lent the calf's mother to African Lion Safari.
Mali and her mother, Targa, have been on loan to the Ontario facility since 2006, when space got tight at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, N.Y.
The calf has been named Chuck after Doyle, who is a long-time elephant handler.
"There's been a concentrated effort over the past 20 years to improve our knowledge and expertise working with elephants and bulls," Doyle said.
"We really didn't get a good effort by a lot of different institutions to breed elephants in a co-operative manner until the last 15 or 20 years."
The hope is that through self-sustaining breeding programs, future generations will continue to have the chance to see elephants in the flesh, he added.
"There's nothing like being up close to them to realize the size and beauty and intelligence."
African Lion Safari bills itself has having one of the most successful Asian elephant breeding programs in North America, with more second-generation births that any other facility.
Asian elephants have declined in number to about 40,000 from an estimated 100,000, the park said.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a typical adult Asian elephant weighs between 2,700 and 3,600 kilograms.
The endangered species is native to the forests and jungles of India, Sri Lanka, China and southeast Asia. While poaching is a threat, the greatest hazard to the elephants survival is destruction and disruption of their habitat.
