Rare twin elephants in Thailand receive monks’ blessings a week after their tumultuous birth

BANGKOK (AP) — Buddhist monks in Thailand on Friday blessed twin baby elephants, one male and the other female, a week after their rare birth came close to being a tragedy.

Their mother, Chamchuri, gave birth to the pair on the night of June 7 at a camp in Thailand’s ancient capital Ayutthaya, a popular tourist destination 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Bangkok. Twin elephant births are rare and male-female twins even more so. The Ayutthaya Elephant Palace & Royal Kraal, home to the newborns, says that it was a first for the province, while a statement from the Thai government said they were the third such pair in the world. The two are the 30-year-old mother elephant’s fourth and fifth offspring. Caretakers at the elephant camp had been expecting to help deliver a baby, but when a second offspring dropped from her mother’s womb 18 minutes afterward, they were shocked.