People in the country of Myanmar believe that a white elephant is an auspicious creature. So, many in the Buddhist-majority country were left ecstatic after a rare white elephant was born in western Myanmar.?
This rare breed was born?last month in western Rakhine state. According to the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper,?the baby weighs about 80 kilograms (180 pounds) and stands roughly 70 cm (two-and-a-half feet) tall.
Footage of the said elephant was released by state TV. It showed the tusker tot following his mother to a river and being washed by its keepers, and later feeding from her.
The mother of the little elephant, a 33-year-old?called Zar Nan Hla is kept by the Myanma Timber Enterprise in Rakhine state, the Global New Light said, adding the baby possessed seven of the eight characteristics associated with rare white elephants.
"Pearl-coloured eyes, plantain branch-shaped back, white hair, a distinctive tail, auspicious plot signs on the skin, five claws on the front legs and four on the back legs and big ears," the newspaper reported.
The name of the elephant has not yet been decided or revealed yet. However, social media users posted about this rare elephant last month.?
If history is to be believed, white elephants were considered extremely auspicious in Southeast Asian culture, and the region's ancient rulers acquired as many as they could to boost their fortunes.
But the ruinous cost of keeping the beasts in appropriately lavish style gave rise to the modern expression in which a "white elephant" is a useless, if beautiful, possession.
As of now, there are currently six white elephants in captivity in the military-built capital Naypyidaw, according to state media -- mostly from Rakhine state and the southern Ayeyarwady region.
This is not the first time a rare elephant birth has occurred this year.?An?elephant?in Kenya¡¯s Samburu National Reserve gave birth to twins, an event said to be extremely rare.?The pair - consisting of a male and female - became only the second set of twin calves ever encountered by local charity Save the Elephants (STE), the BBC reported.
"Twins are rarely encountered in elephant populations ¡ª and form around only 1% of births. Quite often the mothers don't have enough milk to support two calves," STE founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton said in a statement.
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