The Columbus Zoo’s newest arrival now has a name. The baby Asian elephant, who made her debut last month, is named Rita Jean, in honor of Rita Jean Wolfe, part of the Wolfe family that helped start the zoo nearly a century ago.
Back in 1926, the Wolfe family encouraged the city to build a zoo, helped fund the first habitat, and brought in the very first animals a year later.
Rita Jean is the zoo’s first elephant calf in nearly a decade.