Baby Elephant Rescue
Here is an amazing elephant rescue story of a very tiny elephant that has trouble climbing out of a watering hole. The whole 'family' gets involved and it appears they are steppping on each others toes to help the little one:
http://www.wimp.com/elephantrescued/
What a heart warming story. Nature at its best!
This type of behavior isn’t surprising for these highly intelligent creatures. All of the elephants in a herd are related females (the only males are immature calves; mature bulls live separately) and the sisters of the matriarch cow and their offspring demonstrate very strong family ties. The bond between a mother and her calf is exceptionally close and (when the calf is female) can be a 50+-year relationship. According to The Behavior Guide to African Mammals, ”Small calves remain in almost constant contact” with their mothers. “If one wanders more than 15-20 meters away, the mother goes after it. She pushes it under her to protect it from danger or the hot sun, boosts it up steep places by crooking her trunk around its posterior, and lifts it down embankments or over hollow trees and out of wallows. She assists it to water and washes it gently by squirting water over it and scrubbing it with her trunk. In time of drought the mother will regurgitate water from her stomach and spray it to cool her calf. . . Even at 9 years a calf may spend over half the time less than 5 meters from its mother.” It is also quite normal for cows to suckle another’s calves.
