He looked so worried 😢
Earlier this month, a herd of wild elephants were making their way past a village in Assam, India, when the unthinkable happened. Amid their hurried trek to the safety of the forest, an 8-week-old elephant calf traveling with them had somehow gotten left behind.
Suddenly without the comfort and protection of his mother, the calf was understandably panicked.
With nowhere else to turn, the baby elephant then sought out help from people:
https://volume.thedodo.com/embed/0ff79fa84?autoplay=true&loop=true&placement=article&player_type=chorus&tracking=article:lede&privacy_consent=allKeshab Gayan/Kaziranga National Park
Thankfully, the little elephant’s request for help didn’t go unanswered.
Before long, a team from the Wildlife Trust of India’s Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), and local wildlife officials, were on the scene to help.
Their mission? To reunite the worried baby with his equally worried mom.
After assessing the young calf’s health, rescuers then managed to pick up the trail his herd had made through the forest.
They loaded the baby elephant into a small truck to speed him ahead, closer to where his family must have been.
Arriving to a clearing in the forest, the calf was then coated with elephant manure to mask any scent left behind by his rescuers. Afterward, he was escorted out to where his mother could hopefully see him.
And then came the moment all involved were hoping for:
“Soon we heard the rumbles coming from the forest and allowed the captive elephants to take the lead,” Dr. Bhaskar Choudhury, head veterinarian at CWRC, said in a release. “The female, an 8.5 feet tall individual, had emerged from the woods and came to a halt before the calf. She paused briefly, and then the two walked back into the forest together.”
Their touching reunion was caught on video:
https://volume.thedodo.com/embed/d8668f573?autoplay=false&loop=true&placement=article&player_type=chorus&tracking=article:lede&privacy_consent=allWildlife Trust of Inda
Thanks to the work of rescuers, the calf’s story had a happy ending. And he’s not the only one to benefit from such kindness.
According to the Wildlife Trust of India, since its inception in 2002, the CWRC “has rehabilitated more than 5900 animals back into the wild and has been a part of numerous reunion exercises such as these.”