A group of six young elephants, who had an unintended overnight stay in a muddy pit, have been successfully rescued by park rangers in northeastern Thailand’s Thap Lan National Park.
The team stumbled upon the helpless elephants during their routine patrol on March 27, initially intended to deter potential poachers.
Observing that the larger elephant herd was anxiously lingering near the pit, the rangers initially held back, hoping the adults could aid their young ones.
However, when it became clear that external assistance was necessary, a team of rangers stayed to protect the young elephants while the others gathered help.
The next day they relieved these stressed animals when the rangers carved a path out of the sticky mess, a disused storage lake.
Captured on video, the moment of freedom shows the young elephants escaping through the newly-dug channel before confidently striding off into the wilderness.
Despite the happy ending to this story, it underscores the broader issue of the dwindling elephant population in Thailand.
From a historical high of approximately 100,000 in the early 1900s, the elephant population has sharply declined to an estimated 3,000 today.
The elephant, an animal weaved into Thailand’s cultural and religious fabric and linked closely to its royal family, was declared endangered in 1986 and enjoys legal protection.
