1st Elephant Birth through Artificial Insemination with Frozen Sperm

Officials report that an elephant at the Vienna's Schoenbrunn Zoo is the first to have been created through artificial insemination that was used with frozen sperm.

According to zoo veterinarian Thomas Voracek via the Associated Press, he called the birth of the female calf on Wednesday evening "a milestone."

Artificial insemination, which uses sperm that is frozen and then thawed, typically works in various animals, including rhinos, but with elephants, a now endangered species, the process can be problematic. In fact, according to article from Scientific American, it notes that elephants can be notoriously tricky to breed in zoo as infant mortality and miscarriage rates are extremely high. Some scientists are even working to create frozen sperm banks for the animals to help prevent the further spread of extinction. 

Voracek notes via the news organization that this will be a successful contribution to the preservation of the species.

Elephants are known for having the longest gestational period of all mammals, carrying their young for close to two years before giving birth. Longer gestational periods are common among highly intelligent animals, and as elephants are the largest living and biggest-brain land animals in the world, this leaves much time for young to develop in the womb.

The AP notes that the sperm came from a wild bull elephant at the Phinda game reserve in South Africa's Kwazulu-Natal province, known as Steven. Tonga, the baby elephant's mother, is still residing in the zoo and has been since 1998.

Statistics show that at the turn of the 20th century, there were a few million African elephants as well as over 100,000 Asian ones. Yet today, there are only an estimated 450,000 to 700,000 African elephants and between 35,000 and 40,000 wild Asian elephants due to poaching.