POWELL, Oh. – The Columbus Zoo’s baby elephant will make his first scheduled public appearance just one week after his much anticipated birth. Zoo visitors will be able to see the baby and his mother Phoebe in their indoor habitat every day beginning Friday, April 3 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Viewing times will be expanded as the baby grows stronger.
The Zoo is asking the public for their assistance in naming the baby boy elephant and is conducting a contest. Name suggestions can be submitted beginning Saturday, April 4 using the entry form found on the Zoo’s website www.columbuszoo.org or at the Columbus Zoo’s Pachyderm Building. The deadline for submissions is midnight on April 20, 2009.
A panel of judges will select a few names from the submissions. The top names will then be posted on the Zoo’s website for the public to vote for their favorite name. The name that receives the most votes will be announced on Mother’s Day, May 10th.
The grand prize winner will receive a one-year Zoo membership, name on a sign at the Zoo elephant habitat for one year, an elephant ADOPT package, and a $100 gift certificate to the Zoo’s gift shop. Other winners will be selected at random and will receive Columbus Zoo prizes such as memberships to the Zoo or Zoombezi Bay, Zoo admission tickets and t-shirts.
The naming contest is made possible with support from The Columbus Dispatch, Sunny 95 and Papa John’s Pizza. Please see the contest rules for complete details.
This is 21-year-old Phoebe’s third offspring and her second with father Coco, 38 years of age. Phoebe and Coco made Columbus Zoo history on April 16, 2004 with the arrival of Bodhi (BO-dee), the Zoo’s first successful elephant birth. Bodhi’s naming contest resulted in 19,835entries from 48 states; 17 entries were from persons living outside the U.S. and five entries were from military personnel serving overseas.
The pairing of Phoebe and Coco was recommended by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan for Asian elephants. The AZA, of which the Columbus Zoo is an accredited member, strives to maintain a sustainable population of the endangered elephants in North America. In the past five years only nine Asian elephants have been born in six AZA zoos including the new calf and Bodhi at the Columbus Zoo.
An endangered species, Asian elephants are represented by an estimated 38,000 to 51,000 individuals living in fragmented populations in the wild. Agriculture, deforestation and conflict with humans pose a constant threat to wild Asian elephants.
The Columbus Zoo is committed to Elephant Conservation with a 20-year history of supporting wildlife conservation through a Conservation Grants program. Over the past five years, the Zoo has provided $3.8 million of privately raised revenue in support for field projects and conservation organizations in more than 40 countries.
Updates on Phoebe and her calf can be found on the Zoo’s web site www.columbuszoo.org, Facebook, and you can follow us on Twitter.