National Zoo’s baby elephant Linh Mai to make public debut on Earth Day

Linh Mai, the female elephant calf born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo on Feb. 2, will make her first public appearance on Earth Day, April 22.

Smithsonian officials said Friday that, in addition to appearing in public for the first time that day, Linh Mai will make her first appearance on the webcam showing the D.C. zoo’s population of Asian elephants.

People with a paid membership at the zoo will be able to see Linh Mai during an exclusive early viewing period from April 15-19. The viewings will run from 10 a.m. to 2:05 p.m. on those days, and members will be able to get up to six free tickets.

Signups for the early viewings opened Friday. 

Linh Mai was born to female Nhi Linh, 12, and the zoo’s sole male Asian elephant, Spike. It was the first elephant birth at the National Zoo in nearly 25 years. A male, Kandula, was born there in 2001 and lived in the D.C. enclave until being sent to the Oklahoma City Zoo in 2015.

In the weeks since her birth, zookeepers have been working to get Linh Mai acclimated to her new habitat and with the other Asian elephants.

Zoo officials said Nhi Linh “displayed some initial aggression” toward baby Linh Mai but that the calf’s interactions with older females Swarna and Bozie were positive.

“Watching an elephant calf explore and interact with her herd is one of the most heartwarming and joyful experiences you can have at a zoo. We are so excited to introduce Linh Mai to our members and the public. … I can’t wait for visitors to see her,” Brandie Smith, the director of the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, said in the zoo’s release.