This is the heart-warming moment a baby elephant is rescued after plunging into a three-metre deep well.
The one-year-old calf had stumbled into the pit after wandering into a rubber plantation with a herd of elephants in the early hours of Friday morning.
While rescuers arrived to free the little male elephant, his mother suffered injuries after stumbling into an electric fence.
Heart-warming moment baby elephant is rescued from deep well
But after three hours of opening up the well with a digger, the calf scrambled free and rejoined his mother who had recovered from the stun.
The pair scampered back off into the forest to rejoin other elephants just before sunrise yesterday in Chanthaburi province, eastern Thailand.
Siriman Sripen, 29, who lives 200 metres from where the elephant fell, said: ‘There are a lot of wild elephants in the area so we’re used to this. But I was woken up because I heard the mother elephant was showing distress.
‘She was moody and unsettled because the young baby had fallen into the hole. That’s when I called the wildlife staff for help.’
A team of around 15 rescue workers, wildlife park rangers and conservationists, arrived and brought with them the backhoe digger to help free the baby elephant.
The one-year-old calf had stumbled into the pit after wandering into a rubber plantation with a herd of elephants in the early hours of Friday morning
After three hours of opening up the well with a digger, the calf scrambled free and rejoined his mother who had recovered from the stun
While rescuers arrived to free the little male elephant, his mother suffered injuries after stumbling into an electric fence
The baby elephant and its mother scampered back off into the forest to rejoin other elephants just before sunrise yesterday in Chanthaburi province, eastern Thailand
Locals said they were woken up by the elephants when the mother was showing signs of distress
A team of around 15 rescue workers, wildlife park rangers and conservationists, arrived and brought with them the backhoe digger to help free the baby elephant
They smashed open the side of the well to create a muddy slope which the calf was able to clamber up.
Boonnak Pimmuang, head of elephant care in the Kaeng Hang Maeo district forest, said: ‘We received reports at 3am about the baby elephant trapped in the hole.
‘Staff from the park and volunteers arrived to find the elephant in the well, about three metres deep and one metre wide with very little water at the bottom.
‘The staff co-ordianted the use of the backhoe to free the calf as quickly as possible. The rescue was successful and the baby rejoined its mother.’
Rescuers smashed open the side of the well to create a muddy slope which the calf was able to clamber up
Siriman Sripen, 29, who lives 200 metres from where the elephant fell, said: ‘There are a lot of wild elephants in the area so we’re used to this’
Boonnak Pimmuang, head of elephant care in the Kaeng Hang Maeo district forest, said staff co-ordianted the use of the backhoe to free the calf as quickly as possible