Elephants are the largest land mammal currently existing on Earth. They are considered a keystone species in our ecosystem. Aside from being one of the largest animals, their most notable characteristic is their long trunks which they use to drink, take a bath, send distress signals, and even communicate with other elephants. They can be found in Africa, South Asia, and even Southeast Asia and they exist in different kinds of habitat. According to science, elephants belong to the species who display mirror self-recognition which means that they have self-awareness and cognitive ability.
It may explain what happened in the video taken by Tristan Masterton in Tau Game Lodge, Madikwe last July 21, 2013. In the viral video that has been seen by millions, a calf got stuck in a waterhole in South Africa. The baby elephant tried his hardest to climb back to the edge of the waterhole but his attempts were fruitless.
The herd of elephants that witnessed the struggle tried their best to help him clamber back up. There were instances that the adult elephants used their trunks to pick the baby elephant but their efforts still failed. There’s a moment when the herd abandoned the poor little calf but one mama elephant never left his side, it even attempted to save the baby elephant all by herself.
Thankfully, after a couple of minutes, the herd returned bringing more backups to help in the rescue mission. After several failed attempts in picking up the baby calf, two adult elephants decided to get down to the waterhole and pushed the stuck baby elephant back to the edge.
You can see below how the beautiful teamwork of the herd successfully saved the baby elephant:
The rescue mission that lasted for about 10 minutes is one of the loveliest wildlife encounters that I’ve seen and many netizens shared the same sentiments. Some even tagged it as the most heartwarming video that they’ve ever seen and commended the elephants for caring about one another.
