Micron announces names for new twin elephants at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo; free day Dec. 18

Onondaga County earlier in the week had announced the community could help name the twins through an online-voting process.

“If you think about what elephants are known for … their incredible memory … if we had a company mascot, it would absolutely be an elephant because we’re also known for very incredible memory, so it’s just very fitting,” Arnzen said.

Micron’s Arnzen also announced the firm will be sponsoring a free day at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo on Dec. 18, so the public can visit the zoo and see the baby elephants and all the animals. Arnzen also noted that Dec. 18 is National Twin Day, which she called, “very fitting.”

Boise, Idaho–based Micron Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) on Oct. 4 announced plans to invest up to $100 billion over the next 20-plus years on a semiconductor manufacturing campus at the White Pine Commerce Park in the town of Clay.

Onondaga County on Nov. 10 announced male Asian elephant twins were born to parents Mali and Doc at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo a few weeks earlier on Oct. 24.

Mali had delivered the first calf at 2 a.m. with no complications. The second calf came 10 hours later at 11:50 a.m. “in an event that astonished the animal care staff.” The second calf was “noticeably weaker” than the first, per the Nov. 10 announcement. The zoo’s animal-care team and veterinary staff were able to “significantly improve” the calf’s condition.

“As we know, elephant twins comprise less than one percent of elephant births worldwide, and [in] pregnancies, twins are often stillborn or too weak to survive. Sometimes the mother elephant does not survive these types of births, so we’re really really lucky,” Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said in his remarks at the Friday morning event.

Ted Fox, executive director of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, noted the work of the zoo’s staff and the veterinary staff from Cornell University in his remarks to open the announcement.