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Olaf Growald
Brazos is the newest baby elephant at the Fort Worth Zoo, born Oct. 21 to mother, Bluebonnet.
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Olaf Growald
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OLAF GROWALD
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OLAF GROWALD
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Olaf Growald
"We have a secret," the Fort Worth Zoo wrote in a curiously vague email sent last week.
Turns out that big secret was actually a little one, literally — a new baby elephant named Brazos, born Oct. 21 and making his public debut Tuesday.
Brazos, named after the Brazos River in Texas, marks the fourth elephant birth in the zoo's 112-year history. Weighing 255 pounds and standing 37 inches tall at birth, he's part of the third generation of elephants born at the Fort Worth Zoo — starting with Rasha, mother of Belle and Bluebonnet, the mother of Bowie and now Brazos. The zoo currently has eight elephants total.
So why keep it on the down-low until a couple weeks after the birth?
"It's important to give them a little bit of time, like anything," says Ramona Bass, chair of the Fort Worth Zoological Association Board of Directors. "[With] birthing, you never know exactly what's going to happen, so it's always nice to wait and be sure everyone is happy and healthy ... he has to get his little self together."
It's a big moment not just for the Fort Worth Zoo but the elephant population globally. Elephants have been an endangered species since 1976, and according to the zoo, only an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 Asian elephants remain in the wild, an average of 99 are killed every day, and only about 14,000 are kept in managed collections around the world.
The Fort Worth Zoo is looking to promote the species' conservation through Elephant Springs — the new, $32 million habitat that opened in April, which features green spaces and watering holes for Asian elephants and greater one-horned rhinos. The Asian elephant is one of 68 endangered species at the Fort Worth Zoo.
Brazos will be viewable at Elephant Springs at various times throughout the day, depending on his development and weather conditions outside, according to the zoo.
"We are going to watch him grow up and hope that we continue to have births here, help the population worldwide, and be out there for people to enjoy, want to know more, and help," Bass says. "People who love something will do something about it. That, in the end, is the ultimate goal."
Tickets and more information about the Fort Worth Zoo are available here.
