Upstate New York’s Rare Elephant Twins Need Help With Names

Back in October, a rare occurrence happened at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse. It was the first time that twin male Asian elephants were born and survived in a United States facility. Overall, the survival rate for twin elephants is about 1%, so this was a big deal. Now you can help name the twins!

The elephant twins' mother, Mali, delivered her first calf at 2 a.m. on October 24th with no complications. The male calf tipped the scales at a hefty 220 pounds and was perfectly healthy. The second calf came ten hours later at 11:50 a.m. The later elephant was also male and weighed in at a whopping 237 pounds. A report published here on the 1045theteam.com website, said that the second calf was noticeably weaker. The zoo’s animal care team and veterinary staff were able to stabilize the calf’s condition, thus making the duo the first to survive birth as a pair in U.S. captivity. Until now, they remain nameless.

The nice people at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo want your help in naming the pair. The zoo has put a survey on their website, rosamondgiffordzoo.org. The choices for male elephant #1 are a) Yaad, b) Anurak, c) Ranvir and d) Sohan. The choices for male #2 are a) Tukada, b) Viraj, c) Nak su and d) Kiann. When you are voting the website explains the meaning of each of the names, like Kiann which means "king". The elephants appear to be healthy and doing well. Click here to vote. The voting ends on December 1st at 6pm, so you have to hurry!