You’ll never forget today’s Cuteness: Baby Tula-Tu the elephant charms the Oregon Zoo

Happy Monday, friends! It’s the start of the week again and feels like a version of Groundhog Day where the week is just constantly starting. But instead of relying on memory and perception of time, let’s feature a species that is claimed to never forget. Yes, today’s addition to Cuteness HQ is a precious new elephant calf, brought to us by patron and Discord member Kehl.

Meet baby Tula-Tu, a one-month old Asian elephant calf born to mom Rose-Tu on February 1 after 20+ months of pregnancy, at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, OR. Tula has been growing up healthy and strong, and, while staff kept their distance to encourage a strong bond the dedicated team at the zoo has captured some of her early milestones. Tula’s first steps may be a tentative progress initially, but she’s more than ready to walk by her mama’s side and begin to explore.

In her first week, staff named the baby Tula (meaning “balance” in Sanskrit), adding the -Tu suffix in honor of her mother Rose-Tu and grandmother Me-Tu. Tula enjoyed learning to explore with her trunk during this time and met her first other member of the zoo’s herd. Her ‘aunt’ Sung-Surin (also called Shine) is the oldest member of the family group at 42, but shared in greetings, trunk-touching, trumpeting, and searching for a snack of hay.

Baby Tula is happy to adventure with her mom, playing in hay or sand indoors and exploring their outdoor enclosure once it was warm and dry enough. Rose kept an eye on her calf, enjoying a snack of bamboo while the little one explored. She even exhibited her trunk’s dexterity with some branches and sticks. While her antics are absolutely precious, the Oregon Zoo also shares the reality of life for Asian Elephants in the wild:

Highly endangered in their range countries, Asian elephants are threatened by habitat loss, conflict with humans and disease. It’s estimated that just 40,000 to 50,000 of them remain in fragmented populations from India to Borneo, and their home range overlaps with some of the most populous human areas on the planet — 20% of people worldwide live in or next to Asian elephant habitat.

Tula has already been put forward by NBC’s Today Show as a frontrunner for “cutest animal of 2025” (I wonder if they’ve seen Point Defiance Zoo’s baby tapir). You can follow all of Tula’s explorations a dedicated playlist on the zoo’s YouTube channel and is occasionally available for visitors to glimpse in the zoo’s indoor enclosure. She’s also featured on the Oregon Zoo’s social media accounts: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and (of course) YouTube.