IT'S said parenting is a labour of love and for Melbourne's newest elephant mum, the old adage has already proven true.
After a 22-month pregnancy, Melbourne Zoo's Asian elephant Num-Oi gave birth to a male calf at 2.50am (AEDT) on Thursday.
But true to form, the labour was a lengthy process, with the calf taking about seven hours to fully emerge.
Weary zoo staff said Num-Oi had already honed her mothering skills before the birth by nicking food from the other elephants to make sure her baby was born healthy and strong.
It's this preparation that made the eventual birth such a drawn-out process with the 131kg calf a bit too big to move easily down the birth canal.
Elephant curator Jan Steele said the newborn - the third calf to be born at Melbourne Zoo - would be a welcome addition to the expanding elephant brood.
"Today is incredibly significant because this is a continuing evolution of our family group, and this allows us to keep progressing (them) so we can have a socially functioning group," she said.
With mother and calf currently bonding in private, zoo crowds had to make do by watching father Bong Su take a dip in the pool to beat the summer heat.
It's the virile bull elephant's fourth offspring, after Melbourne Zoo's Mali and Ongard and Taronga Zoo's Pathi Harn.
The interstate two-year-old, nicknamed Mr Shuffles as a newborn for his stilted walking manner, nearly crushed his keeper Lucy Melo to death after an apparent rush of testosterone last year.
Melbourne Zoo director Kevin Tanner said there would be a naming competition for the calf, as was done for the last newborn Mali.
And there must be something in the water at the elephant enclosure - another female is expecting already.
It will be Dokkoon's second calf after Mali in 2010, and no doubt make the play pen that little bit more crowded.
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