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Baby elephants are BIG babies! The average birth weight of an elephant is 200 pounds. He is about the same size as a grown man. Babies are born after a long gestation, the longest of all mammals, 18-22 months, and can get up within an hour of birth. They need to be able to stand up to reach their mothers stomachs to breastfeed. At birth, baby elephants are 3 feet tall and grow to 6-13 feet depending on what type of elephant they are. Can a mother carry twins with such young children? That’ll be 400 pounds baby! Let’s see if this is possible.
Twin elephants were recently born in Sri Lanka
“Rare Twin Elephants in Sri Lanka” reads a headline dated September 1, 2021.
At the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka, a 25-year-old elephant named Surangi gave birth to a pair of twin elephants. Both the twins and the mother were reported to be doing well. Both twins were shown in the video around the mother’s legs. The last recorded birth of twins from a domestic elephant in Sri Lanka happened 80 years ago in 1941! Only 1% of elephant pregnancies end in twins.
Human twins are born more than three times more often than elephant twins!
Compared to humans, twins account for 3.21% of live births in the United States, and 1.6 million twins are born annually worldwide. That is, twins are more than three times more common in humans than twins in elephants!
Thanks to medical interventions and IVF, the number of twin births has skyrocketed around the world, but it is assumed that the number of natural births of twins has remained unchanged.
Elephant twins rarely make it to adulthood
“The Crooked Elephant gives birth to rare twins in South Africa, ”reads another headline!
At the Pongola Game Reserve in Pongol, South Africa, it was reported that a pair of twins were born in 2014. Elephant specialist Dr. Ian White says twins are rare, but it is even less common for both twins to survive into adulthood. … The reason is that the mother must produce enough milk to feed both elephants. If she cannot, the dominant twin will prevent the other twin from accessing milk.
“Despite everything, rare African elephant twins are thriving!” heading from 2018.
Eloise, a 57-year-old female elephant from Tarangire National Park in Tanzania, gave birth to twins, and eight months later they are reportedly still alive and thriving. This group of wild elephants is being watched by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Researchers believe Eloise is the matriarch of the herd and possibly the oldest recorded elephant to have had twins. The twin elephants were named “Emma” and “Elon Tusk”!
“Kenya: In Amboseli National Park, young twin elephants are very attractive!“
This story tells of another group of twin elephants who are doing well. They are two months old at the time of this writing. What was interesting about the twins in Amboseli National Park is that they were able to see that the twins have an older sister! Three elephants traveled together next to their mother. If the mother retreated, it seemed that the older sister’s baby was sitting! The twins and their older sister belong to one of 58 elephant families out of 1600 in the park.
So while twin elephants are rare, they are definitely worth a visit!
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