Baby Elephant Rejected by Her Mom Finds the Most Loving Adopter

A sweet Baby Elephant was rejected by her mom at birth, but was adopted by another Elephant later on.

In an adorable video posted to TikTok, the baby Elephant named Linh Mai walked alongside her aunt, Swarna, at the Smithsonian's National Zoo. In the video, the pair stayed close together, and the video's text overlay said that they "can't get over how the mom of the baby Elephant at the zoo rejected her, and now she lives with her aunt."

@samanthawaldman_

I just love her #zoo#elephant#washingtonzoo

awww so cute - Cherri

People in the comments were glad to see the baby doing well, with one user writing, "[the baby Elephant] seems to be doing great!"

According to PEOPLE Magazine, Linh Mai was born earlier this year in February and weighed around 308 pounds at birth. The Washingtonian also reported her mother rejected her shortly after her birth, and Swarna, an older female Elephant at the zoo, stepped in to help raise Linh Mai.

"Although Swarna has never birthed a calf herself, she is a natural when it comes to instinctively caring for one," the zoo said in an update on their website. "Swarna displays just the right balance of 'maternal care' along with giving Linh Mai some independence."

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Why Some Animal Mothers Reject Their Babies

While it may seem surprising that some animal mothers will reject their own babies, it's actually considered "an act of survival for a mother to reject, abandon, and even cull their own offspring."

"Natural selection has favored mothers that provide a great deal of care for their young because, in mammals, the cost of reproduction is relatively high," according to Luis Villazon

at BBC's Science Focus. "If food is limited, caring for all the young equally might result in all of them being malnourished, and possibly the mother as well."

Villazon added that in these cases, "natural selection might favor the mother that selectively abandons or culls the weakest or youngest of her children to ensure that she can adequately provide for the rest."



Joshua Plotnik, a psychology professor at City University's Hunter College in New York, told The Guardian that in elephants, "abandonment is very rare," but sometimes it happens when a mother is "under stress, or when circumstances jeopardize the safety of the rest of the herd."



Elephant mothers are deeply invested in their young, especially since their gestation period lasts two years and their babies depend on them even long after that as well.

Related: Elephants are Considered Nature's 'Gardeners' - and Here's Why

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This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 1:14 PM.