Elephant rescue shows tough task of wildlife guardians

Dramatic rescue: The adult elephant being lifted away to recover her calf which had fallen into a hole. — The Straits Times/ANN

One wet morning in July, an elephant calf strayed out of the forest in Thailand’s Khao Yai National Park onto the grounds of a golf resort in Nakhon Nayok province. It fell into a manhole so deep that its mother could not help. But the adult elephant charged at people who tried to go near her baby.

A rescue team sedated the mother elephant, but it stepped towards the pit using its last ounce of strength, slumping over the hole where its calf was trapped.