At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this Borneo pygmy elephant calf is having a good time in the mud.
After all, elephants do tend to roll in the mud once in a while to cool off. But not this little fella.
It got stuck in a dangerous mud hole.
According to Malaysia’s Sabah Wildlife Department assistant director Sen Nathan who had uploaded on the elephant said that the incident happened on December 27, 2019.
Upon being alerted, Dr Roopan and his team rushed to the location of the incident, a plantation in Kinabatangan, to assist the little fella who was stuck in the hole without any possibility of getting out.
Don’t ask me how the elephant got in the hole in the first place. That remains a mystery.
It was not an easy task to get the calf out because a herd of elephants including the mother of the calf were nearby. They were communicating with the little one after attempting to get it out from the hole.
The team had to scare the elephants away before beginning the rescue operation.
Dr Roopan had to figure out an ingenuous way to free the elephant. Initially the team had thought of using a backhoe. But the method didn’t work.
With time running out and the calf getting extremely stressed out, the team had manually enlarge the hole to free the animal.
The team allowed the calf to reunite with its herd after assessing it for injuries. Thankfully, the little fella is okay and is now back with its family.