Thailand animal caretakers ‘shocked’ after surprise birth of rare twin elephants

• Buddhist monks at Wat Traimit in Bangkok have blessed twin baby elephants, a male and a female, born to their mother Chamchuri in Ayutthaya, Thailand.
• The birth took place on June 7 at the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace & Royal Kraal, marking a rare event.
• The twins are their 30-year-old mother’s fourth and fifth children.

Buddhist monks in Thailand blessed twin baby elephants, a male and a female, on Friday, a week after their rare birth almost turned into a tragedy.

Their mother, Chamchuri, gave birth to the couple on the night of June 7 at a camp in Thailand’s ancient capital Ayutthaya, a popular tourist destination 80 km north of Bangkok.

Births of elephant twins are rare and male-female twins even more so. The Ayutthaya Elephant Palace & Royal Kraal, which is home to the newborns, says this is a first for the province, while a Thai government statement said this is the third pair of this guy in the world.

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The two are the 30-year-old mother elephant’s fourth and fifth cubs.

Elephant camp keepers expected to help with the birth, but when a second calf emerged from its mother’s womb 18 minutes later, they were shocked.

The elephant keepers, called mahouts in Asia, had to act quickly to prevent the equally surprised mother from accidentally harming her new daughter.

One of the mahouts, Charin Somwang, broke his leg while interposing between the mother and her offspring to prevent the tragedy. He told Thai newspaper Daily News that it is normal for a mother elephant to step on it and gently push it after it is born to check if it is alive. But the second baby, the female, seemed too weak to withstand this kind of treatment, he explained.

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On Saturday, Charin was released from the hospital and was delighted to find that both babies were healthy.

Monks from Wat Traimit in Bangkok came to bless the twins on Friday as part of the awards ceremonies organized for the occasion. Then the calves received a tray of bananas and cartons of milk.

Elephants are an important part of Thailand’s national identity and have been officially proclaimed the symbol of the nation. Thai kings rode elephants into battle and a white elephant, considered a sacred symbol of royal power, adorned the Thai flag until 1917.

Once essential to the timber trade, deforestation has left many elephants jobless, and while a dwindling population of wild elephants roams the remaining forests, many are kept in animal shelters or used as props of life on tourist sites.