14 DAY TRIAL // A few weeks ago, on October 12, a female elephant living in captivity at UK's Whipsnade Zoo delivered a healthy calf. The baby Asian elephant is a male, and has since been named Max by his caretakers.
Despite being only about a month and a half old, the baby elephant is surprisingly sociable and does not seem to mind not being next to its mom every waking hour of every day.
“Max is already showing an independent streak. He’ll happily leave his mum’s side to go and play in the paddock with the rest of the herd,” says keeper Stefan Groeneveld, as cited by Zoo Borns.
“Elephants are very social animals and having youngsters joining the herd is what Elephant life is all about,” he adds.
Max currently shares an enclosure with nine other Asian elephants, and is related to some of them. Although he measures nearly three feet (one meter) in height and tips the scale at 283 pounds (129 kilograms), he is the smallest of the bunch.
Luckily, none of its buddies or siblings would ever dream of picking on him because of his size.