image via – youtube.com
Elephants are among the most intelligent species of animals that walk the Earth’s surface. They are highly complex and extremely social mammals who live in caring, tight knit family groups. Many people know that an elephant never forgets, thanks to their incredible memories, but they are capable of so much more.
They cry, play, laugh, are self-aware, and express grief and compassion. When another elephant in the group passes away they all mourn the loss. They have also been observed grieving when a close human friend or caretaker dies, as was the case when Laurence Anthony passed in 2012.
Anthony was known as the “elephant whisperer” for his amazing ability at calming and reforming violent, traumatized elephants who were seen as pests in South Africa. By taking an interest in, and living among them while rehabilitating, the out of control animals, he saved their lives from certain death.
Shortly after he died, two separate and distinct herds of elephants made a miles long, 12 hour, non-stop journey to his home. They showed up and stayed for two days to pay their final respects to the man who had loved and saved them before heading back into the bush. Somehow, in their hearts or minds, they had sensed the loss of friend and wanted to say goodbye to him.
The strong emotional and unspoken bond that can develop between elephant and man can further be seen in this video. In it is an elephant named Thongsri who lives in Thailand with her human caretaker. She clearly cares a lot for her friend and when she noticed that he was being attacked by another man she rushed over to defend him.
It doesn’t matter whether or not her caretaker and the other man were play fighting, all she saw was that someone was potentially hurting her friend. The other man ran off as soon as he saw Thongsri coming at him. Then she flared her ears aggressively and stood guard over the caretaker while he crawled around on the ground.
No one in their right mind would continue to try and harm her friend, they’d likely get trampled in a second if they did! It’s just further proof of what amazing, sensitive, and special animals elephants are.
Have you ever seen anything like this? Let us know!
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