Baby elephant “rescues” his human friend from the water
Environment — di Lorenzo Brenna
In Thailand, a young elephant threw itself into the river to help the man to whom it owes its freedom.
Baby elephant “rescues” his human friend from the water
In Thailand, a young elephant threw itself into the river to help the man to whom it owes its freedom.
Elephants are endowed with a prodigious memory — proverbially so, and for good reason. These enormous mammals are capable, for example, of remembering the precise location of water holes and of distinguishing familiar elephants from strangers. Yet the recognition of friends is not limited to their own kind, at least judging by what happened at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Friendship between man and elephant
The Elephant Nature Park takes in elephants that have suffered abuse and exploitation, rescued from circuses and theme parks. The foundation has saved more than seventy pachyderms, most of them elderly or physically impaired, allowing them to roam freely in the reserve and form small herds. Among them is Kham Lha, a five-year-old female elephant saved last year by Darrick Thomson, 42, co-founder of the park. The bond that has formed between the man and the elephant is extraordinary and had already been captured in a video released by the park, showing Thomson and Kham Lha running and playing together.
Kham Lha saves her friend Darrick
On 12 October the reserve published a video on YouTube showing Thomson pretending to drown, thrashing about in the waters of the Ping river. Kham Lha decisively leaves the herd and enters the water, reaches her friend and escorts him to the riverbank, supporting him with her trunk. "These images show us that when we treat an animal with love, it will always repay us with the same feeling," commented the reserve's staff on the episode.
Beyond species
In 2015 Thomson saved the young elephant and her mother, Bai Teoy, from a life of slavery and brought them to the reserve, giving rise to a sincere feeling that transcends species. Whether the elephant truly believed the man was in danger and entered the water to save him, we cannot know with certainty. What is beyond doubt is that feelings such as friendship, affection and gratitude are not an exclusively human prerogative and perhaps belong to more species than we care to admit. "Before asking whether animals possess a certain type of intelligence — especially the kind we so prize in ourselves — we must overcome our inner resistance to even considering this possibility," writes ethologist Frans de Waal.