image, seattle p-i [#])

Way more than you ever wanted to know about where baby elephants come from, at least in the case of Woodland Park elephant celebrity, Chai. Hint: there are no storks involved, male elephants are offsite, and the process is heavily-dependent on Germans with lots of technology:

a scaffold was erected at the business end of Chai so Dr. Thomas Hildebrandt, from the Berlin Institute for Zoo Biology and Wildlife Research, had easy access. Hildebrandt was covered in plastic protective gear and sporting a bike helmet he had equipped with ultrasound imaging goggles. . . . Beneath Hildebrandt, his colleague Dr. Frank Goeritz sat on a stool in front of a bank of computer screens, electronic equipment and a tangle of computer and power cords.
[p-i]

Even they succeed, the city won’t be awash in baby elephant bliss for almost two years. Last time, they held a contest to name the baby; so you have a lot of time to think of a great entry for the theoretical bundle of pachaderm joy.