SYRACUSE -- An Asian elephant on loan from an upstate New York zoo has given birth in Canada to the first third-generation calf born in North America.

The 235-pound male was born July 15 at the African Lion Safari in Cambridge, Ontario. The mother, Mali, is on loan from the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse. Both zoos are among the world's most successful Asian elephant breeding programs. It is the first calf for the 11-year-old Mali.

Zoo officials in Canada named the calf "Chuck," after Chuck Doyle, the director of the Syracuse zoo and a longtime elephant handler who was instrumental in the success of the Rosamond Gifford breeding program.

Asian elephants are an endangered species. Only about 52,000 remain in the wild.