HOUSTON — At just a month old, Tilly, the baby Asian elephant, already has a crowd of fans at the Houston Zoo.
“The crowd! The people love Tilly,” said Wren Baker, an Elephant Keeper with the Houston Zoo. “Tilly is definitely a crowd pleaser, and she’s very entertaining. She’s always doing something.”
The latest addition to the herd was born on Father’s Day 2018. Weighing 345 lbs. at birth, Tilly is now a healthy 440 lbs., per Baker.
A crowd gathered around as they watched Tilly eating pieces of fruit beside her parents (Tess and Thailand) on a hot, humid Thursday. And some even noticed that Tilly wasn’t the only young calf in the yard.
“There are two babies out here right now,” said Baker. “We have Joy, who’s about a year, and we have Tilly, who’s about a month. They all want to look at the baby, but they forget that there’s two. So, sometimes, they’re looking at the little big baby, and they’ll say, ‘Look at the baby!’ and then they’ll see the smaller one and they’ll go crazy.”
And as if on cue, small children exclaimed their glee at seeing and hearing Tilly raise her little trunk and squeal.
Tilly is now part of a group of ten Asian elephants at the Houston Zoo. The herd is kept in two different yards: one for the bachelor herd-- which are all the younger males too young to breed but too old to hang out with mom-- and the cow yard, where the females and their offspring are kept. And the young elephant is doing just well with the herd.
“She came out here very quickly,” said Baker, referring to Tilly joining the herd. “She was out here within a day or two or three and introduced to the herd and doing really well.”
Tilly’s mom, Tess, has kept a protective eye on her calf. Baker said the elder elephant makes sure to alert the herd if something doesn’t sit well with her. Despite mom’s watchful eye, Tilly still manages to keep herself entertained-- whether that’s playing in water or in the mud.
“She definitely plays hard and then naps even harder.”
And Tilly’s already forming her own little personality.
“She’s got a spunky little attitude and she doesn’t take a lot of sass from anyone else. She’s very, very spunky,” said Baker.
But that attitude is what sets Tilly apart from her siblings-- and the herd.
“Every elephant that is added in to the herd-- they all have their own personalities,” said Baker. “So, it’s really fun to watch them kind of grow and listen to people talk about how babies were the past. So some are a little calmer, some are a little feistier, and Tilly here in the back is definitely a spunky, feisty one. She has— if you come and watch her in the window, she’s playing with the ball or she’s playing with anything in there or she’s playing in her pool. She definitely has a lot of sass and attitude.”