An elephant has given birth to twins in the Samburu Reserve in northern Kenya. As the animal protection organization Save the Elephants announced yesterday, the twins were born to an elephant mother named Alto. The rare event is a “double joy.”
A video from the organization shows how the pair of brothers – two females – are breastfed by their mother, surrounded by other animals from the herd.
Elephant cows carry their young for almost 22 months, longer than any other mammal. They give birth approximately every four years. Twins only account for about one percent of elephant births. Last year, another pair of twins were born on the same reserve – a male and a female.
Twin births are not only rare, but also often dangerous for the calves. Samburu’s penultimate pair of twins were born in 2006, but both animals died a few days later.