There are some people who think animals aren’t capable of being kind or compassionate. At least not in visible ways.
Animals are just animals after all, right? How can they display affection?
However, watching this video unfold can make it a little hard to believe they don’t have feelings of their own!
Just check out how worried this elephant is about her friend!
The star of this video is Thongsri, a 17-year-old female elephant. She is very close with her mahout. For those who aren’t familiar with that term, a mahout is basically a trainer and caretaker of an elephant. Usually, being a mahout is a family profession and a young boy is given a young elephant and they spend most of their time together making a bond that is easy to see in this video! He feeds, rides and all around cares for Thongsri and through the time that they have spent together they have built a strong relationship.
Usually, being a mahout is a family profession and a young boy is given a young elephant and they spend most of their time together making a bond that is easy to see in this video! He feeds, rides and all around cares for Thongsri and through the time that they have spent together they have built a strong relationship.
He feeds, rides and all around cares for Thongsri and through the time that they have spent together they have built a strong relationship.
To go even deeper than that, have you ever heard of the term “elephant mother”? It is pretty self-explanatory, but a female elephant has strong motherly instincts to defend and care for her young or smaller elephants in general. But in this case, it is her trainer!
It is pretty incredible that even though this man is an entirely different species, this elephant still treats him like her friend or even family!
Her mahout and his friends decide to test just how caring she is on video by having one person pretend to attack her favorite trainer. It is a striking display because Thongsri is not having it! She rushes to the rescue with sounds of protest, circling her friend and checking him out for wounds or any real signs of harm!
He pretends not to be able to get up, keeping the show going a little bit longer. The genuine concern in her body language is incredible and almost mesmerizing.
I don’t know about you, but it kind of makes me wish I had an exotic critter for a friend! Although most of us are just going to have to settle for dressing our regular pets up for show. They may not be as compassionate by the end though…
Overall it is pretty easy to see, you can find some of the strongest relationships you will ever have in the strangest of places, and not all friends walk on two legs!
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