Kenya's Third Set of Twin Baby Elephants Spotted in Aberdare National Park
Kenya's Third Set of Twin Baby Elephants Spotted in Aberdare National Park
Dennis Lubanga, Tuko
June 21, 2022
See link
https://www.tuko.co.ke/kenya/459160-kenyas-third-set-twin-baby-elephants-spotted-aberdare-national-park/
for photos.
The elephant twins were first sighted on June 6, 2022 night and again on
June 7, 2022 lunch time at Ark Lodge waterhole In the company of their
mother and other elephants, the animals licked salt from the ground around
the waterhole Research shows that elephant twins are rarely encountered in
jumbo populations because they form around only 1% of births
TUKO.co.ke understands that the elephant twins were first sighted on June
6, 2022 night and again on June 7, 2022 lunch time at Ark Lodge waterhole.
Jumbos gather at the waterhole to lick salt In the company of their mother
and other elephants, the animals licked salt from the ground.
The first twins to be sighted was in Amboseli National Park in 2018. The
second sighting was in Samburu in January 2022 and the latest in Aberdare
National Park in June 2022. According to research, twins are rarely
encountered in elephant populations. Kenya's third set of twin baby
elephants were spotted in Aberdare National Park.
They in fact form around only 1% of births. This is according to Save the
Elephants (STE) founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton. "Often the mothers don't
have enough milk to support two calves," STE says. At about 22 months, the
African elephant has the longest gestation period of any living mammal and
gives birth approximately every four years. Twins are rarely encountered in
elephant populations.
Elephants in Kenya and other sub-Saharan African countries have
increasingly fallen prey to poachers. But Kenya's tourism ministry said in
2020 that elephant numbers in the country had more than doubled thanks to
increased anti-poaching efforts, to 34,000 in 2018 from 16,000 in 1989.
Elephants Give Birth in Caves
TUKO.co.ke previously reported that deep inside Mt Elgon National Park in
Western Kenya are the elephant maternity caves where the world’s largest
terrestrial mammal gives birth to new ones. Due to the rampant wildlife
poaching cases on the Ugandan side, the jumbos consider these caves to be
their safest place to bring forth new ones due to guaranteed security,
availability of salt licks, and plenty of soft food.
There are over five indemnified caves, some partitioned into cubicles where
the big mammals protect the young ones from injuries, predicators, and
bites by insects such as tsetse flies, bees, safari ants, and others. “The
expectant elephants travel all the way from the neighboring Trans Nzoia
county and Uganda to the caves where they give birth and bring up the young
ones,” Bungoma Tourism, Water, Environment and Natural Resources executive
Renson Makheti Wanyonyi told TUKO.co.ke.
Mt Elgon, one of the country’s five water towers, is shared by Bungoma and
Trans Nzoia counties and extends to neighboring Uganda. Read more:
https://www.tuko.co.ke/kenya/459160-kenyas-third-set-twin-baby-elephants-spotted-aberdare-national-park/
A visit by TUKO.co.ke to the caves showed that the hidden caves have unique
rooms (wards) reserved for the young ones and a zone for the salt licks for
the rest of the older elephants.