+

elephants

Photo by Harshil Gudka on Unsplash

Rescue of an elephant and her calf.

We're normally taught to leave nature alone, especially concerning animals big enough to maul or trample us or generally make surviving an encounter an odds game. But sometimes those wild animals need us, and this intense video of veterinarians in Thailand rescuing an elephant and her calf prove just that. On a rainy day in Thailand, a mama elephant and her baby got stuck in a drain before rescuers could get them out.

Keep ReadingShow less
True
State Farm

Mosha, a work elephant, was carrying heavy logs on Thailand's border with Myanmar when she stepped on a land mine.

Mosha survived. But she lost a leg.

On the Myanmar side of the border, Motala, another work elephant, stepped on a land mine too, suffering a similar fate.

Keep ReadingShow less

In North India, winter temperatures are dropping to record lows, causing problems for crops, trains, and an ex-circus performer named Suzy.

Suzy is toothless, blind, and just one of 23 formerly abused elephants living at the Wildlife SOS Elephant Conservation and Care Center in Mathura, India.

"The rescued elephants under rehabilitation at Wildlife SOS have been rescued from shocking circumstances," said Geeta Seshamani, the center's secretary and co-founder. "We aim to provide them with a safe habitat where they can live like elephants.

Keep ReadingShow less
Most Shared

Nómade the elephant was born without tusks. Now her mutation is mainstream.

Evolution could help defend elephants from poachers — but that might not be a good thing.

Growing up in war-torn Mozambique wasn't easy for Nómade the elephant.

Mozambique, a southeastern African nation, gained its independence from Portugal in 1975. Then two years later, the Cold War found its way onto Mozambican soil in a bloody conflict that lasted until the mid-1990s and claimed up to a million human lives and displacing even more.

When the human forces weren't directly at each other's throats, they scavenged the savannah for animals they could kill for meat and ivory to trade for weapons or cash. But Nómade survived, along with 11 of her sisters, thanks in part to a miracle mutation that left them without tusks.

Keep ReadingShow less