Colombo-Sri Lankan elephants gave birth to twins on Tuesday for the first time in nearly 80 years, wildlife officials said.
According to an orphanage spokesman, the twins are both male and were born to 25-year-old Slangi at the Pinnawara Elephant Orphanage on the central hill of the country. Their father, 17-year-old Pandu, is also an orphanage resident.
Video footage from local hill TV media showed that they had gray calves on their paws and were eating leaves around their mother’s paws.
According to Sri Lankan elephant experts, the twins were last born in 1941 to domestically domesticated elephants.
One of Sri Lanka’s largest tourist attractions, Pinnawara was founded in 1975 to care for wild elephants in need of rescue and injury treatment.
Sri Lanka has about 7,500 wild elephants and a population of 22 million.
Warna Karnati Lake
