Thailand’s northeast province of Surin is celebrating the birth of Thong-Kum and Thong-Tang, believed to be the world’s only male twin jumbos.

Thailand’s previous pair of elephant twins – Joom and Jim – were born in 1993. But Joom collapsed and died in 2001, leaving her sister in great distress.

The province of Surin is named after its first governor, who won his position by presenting King Rama I with a rare white elephant back in the eighteenth century.

The people of Surin were once known for their prowess at capturing wild elephants in Cambodia and today celebrate this heritage in an annual elephant feast in November.

Elephants are a national symbol of Thailand but their population in the country has dwindled to only 4,000, down from 100,000 a century ago.

Biologists believe twin elephants are so rare because of the immense nutritional demands they place on their mother.

Read this story in the UK’s Times newsaper.