After a gestation period of 670 days, Munich's Tierpark Hellabrunn’s  9-year-old Indian elephant Temi gave birth to her first calf in the evening on Friday, May 6. The newest addition to the herd is a boy – called a bull – and he came into the world weighing 257 lbs (117 kilos)!

“We are overjoyed that Munich has a healthy baby elephant once more,” said Mayoress and Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, Christine Strobl. Zoo Director, Dr Andreas Knierim added: “Although it’s her first baby, Temi is taking excellent care of her newborn son. It is beautiful to watch both of them.”

Photo Credit: courtesy of Teirpark Hellabrunn

Elephants are the largest terrestrial animals There are two species – African and Asian Elephants (Indian elephants like Tami are a subspecies of Asian elephants). Today, both are endangered. Twenty-five years ago there was approximately 1.3 million elephants in African alone, but now the estimate has sunk to close to 500,000. Even less are to be found in Asia.