A wayward baby elephant’s adorable first steps after its birth at the Houston Zoo were captured on video.
The female Asian elephant, named Kirby, was born Friday afternoon around 3 p.m. in the McNair Asian Elephant Habitat cowshed after 19 hours of labor, weighing a whopping 314 pounds. Houston Chronicle reported.
The footage shows the newborn – with beady eyes and her tongue sticking out – walking on unsteady legs around her mother, 34-year-old Shanti, as she moved her miniature trunk for the very first time.
After Kirby’s birth, Shanti, who was under the watchful care of the zoo’s elephant and veterinary teams during her 21-month pregnancy, became a beloved mother of five.
Kirby’s father is said to be a 58-year-old Asian elephant named Thailand.
Despite elephants usually spending twenty minutes to an hour learning to stand on their own two feet before mastering the act, Kirby’s incredible health and strength was proven by the speed at which she adapted.
She was up within six minutes, started walking 25 minutes later and started breastfeeding within an hour and a half of first being born.
Kirby and her mother will now bond at the facility while the Houston Zoo tracks key milestones: weight and communication between Shanti and her brand new baby.
Adorable footage captured Kirby, a newborn female Asian elephant, taking her first steps after being born at the Houston Zoo on Friday