One of Denver Zoo’s Asian elephants will become a first-time father sometime in the next year, zoo officials announced this week.

Jake, a 14-year-old Asian elephant, helped to artificially inseminate Jade, a 17-year-old Asian elephant that lives at the Saint Louis Zoo, according to a post from the Denver Zoo on Instagram.

Jake’s semen was collected at the Denver Zoo and sent to St. Louis to impregnate Jade, according to zoo officials.

Jade is now 10 months pregnant with her first calf and is due in late 2024 or early 2025.

Asian elephant gestation lasts approximately 22 months, according to the Denver Zoo’s website, which is the longest of any species.

Jake is one of six bachelor Asian elephants that live at the Denver Zoo. He was born through artificial insemination in 2009 at African Lion Safari in Ontario, Canada, and was the first elephant born in Canada through artificial insemination, according to Denver Zoo officials.

He moved to the Denver Zoo in 2018 and lives with five other bull elephants, including his half-brother, Chuck.

Asian elephant calves are born weighing an average of 220 pounds and will nurse as long as four years, though they will start eating vegetation at about six months old, according to the zoo’s website.

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