According to officials who spoke with AFP, twin baby elephants born at a timber camp in Myanmar are thriving after a shaky start to life.
The twins, Pearl Sint and her brother Kyaw Pearl, were born last week at the 60-acre Wingabaw elephant camp, operated by the state-run Myanmar Timber Enterprise in the Bago region.
Standing at about two feet and six inches tall, the twins were slightly shorter than average elephant calves.
This posed a challenge, as they were initially too short to reach their mother’s teat to feed, explained Myo Min Aung, the camp’s assistant manager.
To assist them, workers used small wooden blocks to lift their front legs, helping them feed from their mother.
By the third day, the twins were able to feed on their own and quickly began to show their personalities.
“The little male enjoys wandering around and playing with humans more than staying with his mother,” said Myo Min Aung, adding that the male wasn’t feeding as much as his sister.
Another camp official, who preferred to remain unnamed, expressed hopes that the twins wouldn’t take after their father, Aye Htike, who had a history of aggression toward other elephants and people.
In contrast, their mother, Pearl Sandar, is described as gentle, and the camp is working on ensuring the twins develop good behavior.
With the arrival of the twins, the camp now has a total of nine elephants. In the past, about 3,000 elephants were employed for timber work, hauling logs through dense forests.
Nowadays, the elephants at Wingabaw camp, like many others, are involved in tourism, giving rides to visitors.
Asian elephants are an endangered species, with fewer than 50,000 remaining in the wild and fewer than 2,000 in Myanmar, according to 2018 data from the environmental group WWF.
“This is the first time I’ve personally experienced the birth of twin elephants,” said Myo Min Aung. “I’m happy to care for them, but it’s also a big responsibility.”
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