AYUTTHAYA, Thailand, June 11, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - An elephant in Thailand has
delivered a rare set of twins in a dramatic birth that left a carer injured
after he tried to rescue one of the newborns.

The 36-year-old Asian elephant named Jamjuree gave birth to an 80-kilogramme
(176-pound) male at the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace and Royal Kraal north of
Bangkok on Friday night.

But when a second, 60-kilogramme female calf emerged 18 minutes later, the
mother went into a frenzy and attacked her new arrival.

"We heard somebody shout 'there is another baby being born!'" said
veterinarian Lardthongtare Meepan.

An elephant keeper, also known as a mahout, moved in to prevent the mother
from attacking her newborn, and took a blow to his ankle in return.

"The mother attacked the baby because she had never had twins before -- it's
very rare," said Michelle Reedy, the director of the Elephant Stay
organisation, which allows visiting tourists to ride, feed and bathe
elephants at the Royal Kraal centre.

"The mahouts who are the carers of the elephants jumped in there trying to
get the baby away so that she didn't kill it," Reedy told AFP.

Jamjuree has now accepted her calves, who are so small that a special
platform has been built to help them reach up to suckle.

They are also being given supplemental pumped milk by syringe, said
Lardthongtare.

Twin elephants are rare, forming around only one percent of births, according
to research organisation Save the Elephants, and male-female twin births are
even more unusual.

Mothers often do not have enough milk for both calves and the pair might not
have survived in the wild, said Reedy.

"Whether the rest of the herd may have intervened -- they may have, but the
baby may have been trampled in the process," she said.

Reedy said many of the 80 elephants at the centre were rescued from street
begging, a practice that became increasingly common after a logging ban in
1989 that left mahouts working in the industry with their elephants seeking
alternative income.

The practice, which was outlawed in 2010, involved the animals performing
tricks like playing with footballs or carrying baskets of fruit.

Some elephants at Royal Kraal carry tourists to the nearby ruins and temples
of Ayutthaya, the historic former capital of Siam.

Many conservation groups oppose elephant riding, arguing it is stressful for
the animals and often involves abusive training.

The centre argues the rides allow the animals to socialise and exercise, and
promote conservation of the species, which is endangered in Southeast Asia
and China.

Only about 8,000-11,000 Asian elephants remain in the wild, according to the
WWF.

The animals were once widespread, but deforestation, human encroachment and
poaching have decimated their numbers.

The twin calves, whose father is a 29-year-old elephant named Siam, will be
named seven days after their birth, in accordance with Thai custom.