Locate an Elephant

Linh Mai is a female Asian elephant born in February 2026 at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Shortly after her birth, Linh Mai’s mother, Nhi Linh, rejected her—a heartbreaking outcome that regularly occurs in captive elephant populations. As a result, Linh Mai required intensive human intervention to survive. She was bottle-fed around the clock, handled by zoo staff, and gradually introduced to another elephant who assumed a surrogate caregiving role. While these efforts have been portrayed as a conservation success, they reflect the profound failure of captive breeding and highlight the challenges faced by elephant calves who are forced to grow up in a wholly unnatural environment, fundamentally unlike the one evolution prepared them for. Linh Mai is confined with several other elephants, who all suffer from their facility’s lack of sufficient space and from being unable to engage in their natural behaviors.