An elephant has given birth to twin daughters in Kenya, a rare event for the world’s largest land mammal, an organization dedicated to protecting the endangered species announced Friday.
The two baby elephants were born in the Samburu National Reserve, in the north of this East African country, to a female named Alto, the organization Save the Elephants said, welcoming the “double joy”.
Twin births represent only about 1% of elephant births, but two more twin elephants – one male and one female – were born in Samburu Reserve in early 2022.
Hurrah! Nearly two years after Bora from the Winds gave birth to twins for the first time in decades, another pair of twins (both female) have been born in the Samburu National Reserve. Meet Alto’s double joy, first spotted by our researchers this week.
Gilbert Sabinga pic.twitter.com/A3y6n8NLjg
– Save the elephants (@ste_kenya) November 24, 2023
In a video published by Save the Elephants on its X account (formerly Twitter), the two baby elephants can be seen nursing their mother, in the presence of the other members of the group.
Elephants have the longest gestation period of all mammals; they carry their young for almost 22 months and give birth approximately every four years.
Twin elephants don’t always survive. For example, twins born in Samburu in 2006 survived only a few days.
There are more than 36,000 elephants in Kenya, according to figures from the country’s first national census of all wild animals, carried out in 2021.
This number represents a 12% increase compared to the 2014 population, when poaching for ivory was higher.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature warned in 2021 that poaching and habitat destruction, especially due to the conversion of land to agriculture, is having a devastating effect on elephant numbers across Africa.
Source: DN
