It’s common to hear stories about dogs saving their owners from all sorts of peril. That’s why they are known as “man’s best friend.” However, an elephant in Thailand has proven that elephants can be just as useful and companionable as dogs.
In an obviously staged scenario, a man ran over to another man in a field. The running man appears to assault the man who was in the field. The next thing that happens is that an elephant stomps over to the man who was assaulted to see if he’s OK because the man is the elephant’s caretaker.
The elephant’s name is Thongsri, she is 17 years old and she lives in captivity at Maesa Elephant Camp, which is in Thailand’s Maesa Valley.
The footage from March 2015 is from the elephant reserve and popular tourist destination in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was posted on YouTube in October 2015, and has been seen by more than 8 million people.
YouTuber Ms K. Johnson said of the video, “I don’t see anything surprising in this. Elephants are oriented to family. That is what they do. It’s all about family to them and this man is family to him or her.”
At the camp, at the prodding of their trainers, elephants get to show the world how resourceful and intelligent they are by being beasts of burden and painting pictures. The pictures that elephants like Thongsri are forced to paint are famous.
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