A set of elephant twins believed to be the world's first male and female pair to survive have been born in Thailand.

The rare duo were delivered by mother elephant Pang Chamchuri, 36, at the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace & Royal Kraal in Ayutthaya province on June 7.

Authorities said the male calf was born first, at 9 pm local time. However, staff were shocked when Pang Chamchuri began pushing out another baby 18 minutes later.

One caretaker was injured while trying to drag the calves away from their agitated mum. He was taken to the Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Hospital for treatment.

Laithonglian Meephan, the owner of the elephant centre, said: 'I'm very happy and proud because this is the first elephant to give birth to twins here at the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace.

'Importantly, there has never been any record of twin elephants being born male and female. As far as I know, there are twin elephants that were both male and female. This time, it was a female and male.'

The twin calves were both healthy and are the 94th and 95th elephants born at the Ayutthaya Elephant Palace & Royal Kraal. They have not yet been named.

Despite claims that the pair may be the first different-sex elephant twins, research and conservation organisation Save the Elephants has previously observed similar twins in Kenya.

The boy and girl calves were delivered by their mum Bora at the Samburu reserve in northern Kenya in 2022. However, the female twin sadly died.

Elephant twins account for only one per cent of elephant births, Save the Earth said.

Thailand has up to 3,500 elephants in the wild and a similar number in captivity.

The population has been increasing in recent years, but it is still a fraction of the estimated 300,000 wild elephants that lived in the country at the beginning of the 20th century.

The main threats to wild elephants in Thailand are habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and conflict with humans.