Rain poured down in Thailand as a mother elephant and her baby made their way down a road in Khao Yai National Park. With one misstep, however, the 1-year-old slipped and fell into a drainage hole.
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Distraught, the mother elephant stood guard over her baby. When a rescue team arrived, she was so protective over her little one that they were forced to give her some tranquilizers. Unfortunately, this led to more complications.
“It was impossible to get near the baby while the mother was nearby so we gave her three doses of [tranquillizers] but she moved towards her baby before passing out and hit her head,” Dr. Chananya Kanchanasarak, the national park department veterinarian said.
When the mother elephant passed out, presumably from stress, she halfway fell into the muddy hole. The rescue team swiftly used a truck-mounted boom lift to pull her out. Next, they climbed on top of her to perform CPR.
Meanwhile, her little one squealed away, no doubt desperate to be reunite with their mom. Luckily, as some of the rescue team was helping the mom, others were using a digger to clear a path for the little one to make their way out of the hole.
Footage of the suspenseful rescue has been shared all over social media, garnering over 70 million views on Facebook alone. As intense as it was, their three-hour-long effort certainly paid off in the end!
Once the calf was free, they began nursing on their mom. Soon after, mom regained consciousness, and they were both able to return back to the wild.
Talk about the perfect end to what Chananya called “one of the most memorable rescues we’ve done.”
Watch Chananya and the rest of the rescue team save the lives of this sweet elephant mom and her baby in the video below, and don’t forget to share.
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