Rangers at the Xishuangbanna Asian Elephant Conservation and Management Center in southwest China's Yunnan Province recently captured rare drone footage showing clear fetal movements in a pregnant wild elephant.
The expecting mother is part of the famous "short-nose family" of wild Asian elephants. The footage clearly shows the elephant's abdomen rising and falling rhythmically as her unborn calf moves inside her.
The "short-nose family" gained international fame in 2020 when 16 members of the herd embarked on an epic 17-month, 1,300-kilometer trek from Xishuangbanna before returning to their habitat. During that journey, the herd saw baby elephants born and young males leave the group. By the time they returned south in 2021, the core group had 14 members.
Since then, the family has continued to thrive. Two new calves have already been born this year, bringing the total herd size to 21.
According to experts, the Asian elephant has a gestation period of 18 to 22 months, typically giving birth to a single calf.
Current monitoring shows the "short-nose family" is active in the Mengyang area of the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve and its surrounding areas, where the group remains stable and frequently interacts with other elephant herds.
Rare footage shows pregnant wild Asian elephant's fetal movements
The newly-established World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO) marks a major milestone in AI development and a significant step toward global AI governance, international delegates said on Friday.
Twenty-nine countries on Thursday signed an agreement in Shanghai on establishing WAICO, an independent intergovernmental international organization headquartered in Shanghai.
The organization aims to promote international cooperation and global governance on AI, ensuring that AI is beneficial, safe and fair, thereby promoting its healthy and orderly development to benefit all humanity.
"I think this organization reinforces the need for multilateral cooperation. So you have 29 countries that have come together. I think yesterday's developments underline the importance of the capacity-building that countries around the world are facing an AI divide. There are some countries that do not have the talent, the datasets, the computer infrastructure, the access to the right models, and therefore efforts such as these can help bridge the AI divide," said UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies Amandeep Singh Gill.
Alaa Abdulaal, chief of Digital Economy Intelligence at the Digital Cooperation Organization, also hailed the launch, saying that cooperation is vital to ensure that no country is structurally excluded from the evolving digital landscape.
"Any initiative that is targeted for opening dialogues and innovation and conversation between countries to make sure that everyone is participating in the digital economy is a huge milestone. Whenever we have cooperation, whenever we have different countries, different representation, making sure that no one is left outside AI, it is a huge achievement, definitely," said Abdulaal.
World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization marks milestone in AI development: int'l delegates
