An underage elephant has given birth to a 70-kilogram (154 pound) calf at a zoo in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, a zoo official said on Wednesday.
The elephant cow named Sinta is one of three elephants who arrived to Russia from Berlin last year in an exchange by the Russian zoo for a polar bear. The elephants, two bulls and the cow, are around six years old.
Elephants are generally considered fully grown at the age of 10-12. They usually live to 60 or 70 years of age.
"The birth of the baby elephant came as a complete surprise for us: although the Germans warned us that Sinta could have been pregnant, we didn't have our hopes up because she is still underage...However, we just got another elephant," the deputy director of the zoo, Nina Yevtushenko, said.
Sinta gave birth without any human help and is a good and caring mother.
"The baby girl is now doing everything a baby usually does: she's eating, drinking milk, sleeping and playing with her mother," she said.
ROSTOV-ON-DON, December 29 (RIA Novosti)