This is the only recorded hybrid birth between Loxodonta africana and Elephas maximus, the African and Asian elephant. The trunk is made of many different types of tissue, but contains no bone. Contrast that with the entire number of muscles in the human body, about 600. Chai was on a year-long breeding loan at Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Missouri. She was bred by a bull elephant called Onyx.
Elephants have the longest gestation of all mammals.
Click here to read more information about Chai's return to Woodland Park Zoo and the progress of her pregnancy.