People from all over the country are traveling to see them.
SYRACUSE N.Y. (NCC News)—The leaves are falling, the wind is blowing, the snow is on its way and it’s a cold Monday morning in Syracuse. But even at 30-degree weather people are still flocking into the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in high numbers with a sense of urgency and excitement, oohing and awing at the sight of two new creatures.
With that, let’s address the elephant in the room or should I say elephants at the zoo as Syracuse’s Rosamond Gifford Zoo has made history with the birth of baby Asian Elephant twins. The mother elephant is Mali and the father is named Doc, and in the early hours of Oct. 24, twins were born. First (as expected) a pregnant Mali gave birth to a 220-pound male calf at around 2 a.m. Then ten hours later, at 11:50 a.m., Mali shocked the zoo’s staff when she gave birth to a second male calf who, at the time, weighed 237 pounds.
“Yeah, so it’s pretty rare,” said Seth Groesbeck, collection manager at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. He helps take care of the elephant’s and knows how special this circumstance is, “…Elephant twins in general, it only happens in about one percent of elephant births. And in the United States in North America and Europe, they’ve actually never had successful twins born,“ Seth Groesbeck
The names of the twins are in Hindi being Yaad (which means memory) and Tukada (which means chip). The names were decided by the public via an online vote, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed that the names are Micron themed, having to do with the new computer chip plant coming soon Clay.
Working with the elephants daily, Groesbeck has personally been able to monitor the elephants through their whole breeding and birthing process. He talked about how the process went.
“Overall, it went really well. We do all natural breeding here at the zoo. Our male gets along really well with all of our females. So overall, it’s a really smooth, easy process. Mom did great all the way through her pregnancy, showed no real signs of any stress. And all went well with the birth processes.”
With such a rare circumstance on the zoo’s hands, Groesbeck applauded how the staff handled the situation.
“It was a bit shocking at first. But the staff adjusted really, really well. We have a great team here at the zoo, our staff and our managers and our upper management, and everyone adjusted really well. The staff has been doing fantastic.”
The birth of Yaad and Takuda was great to hear about but it was over a month ago. Groesbeck went over the animal’s current condition today.
“Yeah, the elephants are in really good condition. Mom has been nursing really well and is providing enough milk for both of the twins. They’re moving around really well excited. And the best thing now is they’re getting a lot of energy. So they’re starting to play with each other. “
Yaad and Takuda are not only history makers but they are also a huge draw for visitors at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. Being that the elephant twins are the only ones in the United States, people from all over the country come to see them.
“So I would say it was just an overwhelming sense of excitement at this time,” said Amanda Aiken, who works admissions at the Rosamond Gifford zoo. She’s seen people from diverse locations travel to Syracuse to see the twins in person.
She further stated, “I mean, our busiest time of the year is the summer. But typically around this time, the numbers go down as it’s starting to get cold and snowy. But I would say we’ve actually had an increase actually in the past few weeks. I’ve had people tell me, they’ve come from Michigan and Minnesota, just to come see the elephants. When people walk in I usually hear, “What’s the fastest route to get to the elephants? Definitely a lot of people coming in with the main goal of seeing the twins.”
It was definitely a long road for the zoo’s staff and animals to get to where they are today but it paid off in the end. Beyond this, Yaad and Takuda are happy and healthy, Mali and Doc are healthy, and morale with the zoo’s staff and the general public is high. This is all because of the twins who have brought so many smiles to so many in their short time on earth so far.