In the cleaning guide for baby asian elephant tusks, there’s one instruction. Just add water. But just how sensitive calves like this one are has only just been discovered....
Research just released has just shown that Asian elephants not only sense stress and sickness in their calves but also respond to it with calming high frequency sounds. This urge to help is thought to be the reason six elephants were found dead at the base of a waterfall in Thailand after a young member of the herd slipped and fell.
Those adults are now thought to have been trying to get down to the base of the waterfall to comfort the infant when they paid the ultimate price. It’s safe to say elephants have a big heart in every way...