Sleepy girl* awakens and becomes camera shy as she takes a back step around her twin to get closer to mama. Amazing close range video of rare twin elephant calves in Sri Lanka. Watch YouTube Video  “twin baby elephants. Minheriya National Park. Sri Lanka”  by Nilkamal Weerasooria

*Forgive us if we mistook this sweet baby elephant as a girl.

“Baby twin elephants have been spotted roaming around the Minneriya National Park. This is said to be the first sighting of its kind recorded in Sri Lanka as only one percent of elephant births result in twins. Consequently, elephant twins are considered to be extremely rare. In 2018 carcasses of twin elephants were found near Maduru Oya and were believed to be stillborn.”

Image: ERNA, twin elephants born in Sri Lanka 2020

“The successful birth of these calves caused much excitement amongst wildlife enthusiasts. The duo were believed to be three or four weeks old (approx. mid July 2020) and were sighted suckling milk from a female elephant. However a genetic test will have to be conducted to scientifically affirm the observations. The Department of Wildlife requests the public not to obstruct the twin babies’ natural habitat by attempting to deliberately track them down as foreign intrusions would disturb their behaviour.”

From Pulse #LivingIt  “Sri Lanka’s First-Ever Twin Elephants Sighted at Minneriya”

Image: ERNA e-news, Sri Lanka twin elephants