Samson will stay small and kidlike for several years and won't reach full maturity until he is in his 20s.
Rachel Stolusky, a zoo veteran at age 3, looked forward to seeing the baby elephant all morning. When the family made its usual first stop at the rhinoceros exhibit - the rhino is the Owings Mills girl's favorite animal - she started fussing. She had to see the elephant, said her mother, Felicia.
"Look at him playing," she said. "I'm sure because of Rachel we'll be here a while."
Weather permitting, Samson and his mother will be on public display from 10 a.m. to noon every day. The rest of the herd won't be joining them on these excursions.
Tuffy, the male elephant who came from Arkansas along with Felix, stays in a separate enclosure. Males are more aggressive than females and in the wild don't regularly live with the females. Females Dolly and Anna have seen Samson close up, but have been separated by a fence from the baby. Dolly and Anna are so big they could accidentally hurt Samson, so keepers have decided to wait until he is bigger before giving them unfettered access.
"There he is. There he is. There he is," proclaimed Elliott White, a 2-year-old from Catonsville. "Little baby. Little baby."
The elephant exhibit had to be reconfigured for that little baby. Every toddler needs to have his home babyproofed, and the elephant enclosure was no exception. The pond, for example, is chained off from Felix and Samson for now. It is 12 feet deep, and he could drown.
As any proud parent might, the zoo's staff were doing a little bragging about their new addition yesterday. "He's ahead of the learning curve for an elephant calf," McClure said.
Samson is doing things with his trunk that elephants don't typically do for several more months. He can get water in his mouth with his trunk, is picking things up with his trunk and has even started using it to eat his mother's manure - a good thing, McClure assured, as the bacteria in it will help Samson's digestive system mature.
"He's very inquisitive. He's just ... almost friendly," McClure said. "He's not afraid of people.
"The world is a happy new place for him."
stephanie.desmon@baltsun.com
