Gracious Wild Elephants Seem To Salute Men For Getting Baby Elephant Out From Ditch

Oct 31, 2020

Stories of humans and animals bonding are ones that never fail to tug at our heartstrings. Perhaps, it's because of the very fact they can at times find a way to effectively communicate when it really matters, despite their differences.

This 2019 video from an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer, Parveen Kaswan, is an excellent example of just that. In the video, a baby elephant gets stuck in a ditch. Men working around the area find the baby animal and immediately get to work to bring it back to safety. At the end of the dramatic rescue, the elephants show their gratitude for the humans' intervention in a sweet gesture nobody saw coming. 

The video circulated on Twitter after IFS officer Parveen Kaswan posted it with the following caption: "Best you will watch today. An #elephant calf fell into a ditch which was rescued. And see how mother stopped to thank the people. This is typical behaviour, elephants first try to rescue by their own, then leave space & stand far for getting help from Human. Via WA so quality."

We don't know how this baby elephant ended up in a deep ditch in India, but her family clearly felt helpless in the situation. We totally get that as pretty much anyone would regardless of species.

The men are using an excavator, and at first, it seems they might be hindering instead of helping the elephant toddler. You can see that they are shoving dirt down into the ditch where she is trapped. It almost seems counterproductive to her rescue.

If you're like us, you may even wonder if they are going to try to get the elephant out of the ditch by somehow loading her in the bucket. Then you realize the logistics of this feat are next to impossible. So, how do they go about this type of rescue?

Well, these men are clever and may have even done this before. You can watch as they slowly and carefully fill the ditch with dirt. Occasionally, it appears as if the dirt and rock are going to land directly on top of the elephant. Yikes, those are huge rocks!

Slowly, the greater picture begins to come together and we can see that the men are simply trying to fill the ditch up so that the baby can climb her way out. She gives the arduous climb a few tries and sinks back down into the ditch in defeat. Is she giving up?

In the background, you can hear her family of elephants moaning in despair. Sometimes, she even cries out at what feels like an impossible task at hand. However, this baby is determined to get out of the ditch.

As more dirt is loaded into the ditch beside and underneath her, the baby elephant tries yet again to climb out. This time, she is successful. Most of the humans watching the event are excited, but the elephants have yet to see their baby.

Get your sweaters, because this is the part of the video that will chill you! As the baby walks out of the ditch and closer to her family, you can hear the elephants trumpet and roar! It is unlike anything we've ever heard!

At this, you can also hear humans cheering and clapping. Are you in tears yet? Well, it gets even better. After the noise dies down, one of the elephants raises his trunk at the humans in a salute or "thank you" gesture. This happens not once, but twice, and sets off a round of cheers from the humans. How remarkable!

At the same time, however, it does make some sense that these elephants seem exceptionally communicative and smart given that they are considered among the world's most intelligent animals. In fact, elephants, who have the largest brains of any land mammal, have around 257 billion neurons, which allows them to play, to express grief, to mimic other animals, and to communicate. 

After a recent study confirmed elephants' ability for "self-understanding," Dr. Josh Plotnik, a visiting researcher at Cambridge University, had this to say: “This implies that elephants may be capable of recognizing themselves as separate from objects or their environment. This means that they may have a level of self-understanding, coupled with their passing of the mirror test, which is quite rare in the animal kingdom.”

So perhaps these gracious elephants really were thanking their rescuers. 

It only goes to show that we are all united in ways we may not fully understand. If you have animal-loving friends, be sure to pass this video along to your friends and family. It's always good to make people cry feel-good tears! And let us know what you think these elephants were trying to say in the comments!