"Quest" is Discovery's commitment to fund groundbreaking research in science and exploration. On a seemingly ordinary day in November, 2001, something amazing happens at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. – Baby Kandula is born. His birth marks a rare success and huge scientific milestone for the zoological community: The 320-pound newborn is only the second Asian elephant to be born through artificial insemination.
Watch as this playful, rambunctious youngster grows up right before your eyes – taking his first steps, learning to feed and figuring out how to manipulate objects with his trunk in rare footage of an Asian elephant progressing through the newborn and toddler stages.
Baby Kandula cavorts and romps across the zoo grounds, yet is oblivious to his own importance globally. The pioneering science that made Kandula's conception possible gives new hope to the worldwide network of pachyderm experts desperately trying to reverse the Asian elephants' ever-quickening march toward extinction. The fervent efforts to understand a deadly virus that is sweeping through the elephant community may rest solely on this little one's ample shoulders.
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