Baby elephant born via artificial insemination at Ohio zoo

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium announced Thursday the birth of a new baby elephant.

In a Facebook post, the zoo shared that mama Phoebe gave birth to her calf at 3:09 a.m. According to the zoo, baby and mom are both healthy and strong.

The calf's birth birth is crucial to sustaining the genetic diversity of Asian elephants in human care, the zoo posted. For this reason, Phoebe was paired with a male elephant recommended through The Association of Zoos and Aquariums' (AZA) Species Survival Plan.

"While Phoebe has had the opportunity to breed with male, Hank, the attempts were unsuccessful and she was also artificially inseminated with sperm from Hank and a male from another zoo," the post read. "The father of the calf is not yet known and will be determined via a DNA test."

According to the zoo, attempts to artificially inseminate elephants are becoming more common.

The public will have an opportunity to help name the calf once its sex is announced.