If the gender prediction activities played at pregnant pachyderm Semba’s baby shower Sunday morning prove true, the Reid Park Zoo will be home to a bouncing baby girl elephant in the coming weeks.
When a trainer tossed one blue and one pink stick into the exhibit in a retrieval exercise, Mabu, the zoo’s lone bull and proud daddy-to-be picked each up, tasted them and then returned the pink one to the staffer. Further backing up Mabu’s prediction, results from a Plinko-style game played by guests also showed female as the favored gender. Other activities included making elephant ear headbands, mud painting and guessing the calf’s weight. The elephants joined in by noshing on a frozen “cake” and ripping open presents filled with treats.
Nearly 1,000 people attended the event. The calf will join brothers, 7-year-old Punga and 3-year-old Sundzu, and will be the first elephant born at the zoo. “It is monumental for our zoo, it is monumental for Tucson and it is monumental for the species of elephants,” said Jed Dodds, education coordinator at the zoo.
