In emotional footage, a baby elephant is seen returning to her human friend and carer after she was rejected by an elephant herd.
2-year-old Chabakeaw is an uplifting elephant calf who was rescued from a mud pit by hardworking wildlife officials back in April.
After the Thai rescuers treated the elephant, they aimed to reunite her with her herd so that she could return into the wild. Sadly, however, Chabakeaw was rejected by the herd.
After getting abandoned, the calf returned to her previous human carer and took a nap in his lap.
Speaking of the incident, elephant specialist Pichet Noonto said that the elephant was probably not accepted back into the herd because she got lost and left behind at a young age.
The rejection means that the elephant now has no other choice but to live her life out with the rescuers, something that her carer is definitely happy about.
“We believe that she was not accepted by the herd leader which is a consequence of her being raised by humans for over five months. She would have had difficulty adapting to the elephant behavior in the wild and been kicked away,” Noonto said.
“We will take care of her while we plan her future, but sending her back to the herd again might not be one of the options.”
Fortunately, despite the heartbreaking rejection, Chabakeaw has a bright future ahead unlike many other elephants in Thailand.
Just recently, co-founder of Intrepid Travel tourist company spoke out and urged people not to ride elephants when on vacation in Thailand because the gentle giants are often mistreated and abused in order to be forced into submission for human fun.
“A female elephant will be shot, and then its baby is captured. That baby is then tortured until it’s willing to submit to humans, and is then trained to do elephant riding,” he expressed in his Instagram post.
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Replaced!