Baby Elephant Takes First Steps With New Prosthesis

The video was taken recently at the Elephant Hospital in Lampang, Thailand. The 4 year old elephant was the victim of a landmine. The prosthesis was made by the Prostheses Foundation in ChiangMai, Thailand

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• elephant
• prosthesis
• landmine
• Thailand

[chinalee101]

Having a mind of it's own now this amazing Ellie. Hats off to those that helped. I wish the best in the future for this little one.

[Klaujz]

THANK YOU so much for sharing this amazing video!!!

[kkofg]

@The0LizFabulous They know how to handle little elephant. I have to watching this video with sound. This is the first time for her with this prosthetic leg. She never come out from her corral so she feel little scare. That's why they give her food to make she come out. When she get in with outside, she try to go more far but the staff want her to

inure to leg gradually so they just let her walk around her corral and not too long (just about 5 minute).

Sorry for my poor english.

[bippityboppityME]

this elephant will grow up soon so a bigger prosthethics should be in place.

[The0LizFabulous]

Its amazing that they did this surgery, but you can see that they dont know how to handle the Elephant. This poor elephants is so confused because one person is giving him food, the other is pushing him, the other is pulling.

And the bullhook is just awful

[veggiewarriors]

@HenryDavidT

Really? Where's positive reinforcement been used in the West? 

[veggiewarriors]

@Darknesseswings

I grew up in Africa and trust me, when you provide nothing more than TLC for the elephant, he'll know you have the best intentions for him and will make sure he doesn't inadvertently hurt you. You don't need a stick or bat to tell the ele "too much or too close, back up".

The bullhook is a stupid idea endangering the life of both keeper and baby which traditional elephant management has failed to recognize.

[HenryDavidT]

From endless footage on elephants (& animals) in captivity & trainers, it's clear Asians are still years behind their Western counterparts, who haved developed & used "positive re-enforcement" to a much more effective degree, although Asians have been interacting with elephants for thousands of years. 'Tis because the "art" of animal training has been more systematized here in the West, whereas Asians still use a 5,000 year old "just chain it & beat it til it submits to you" mentality.

[mokmok8080]

its is so beautiful...

[Darknesseswings]

@veggiewarriors I agree would have been better to have maybe one handler encouraging him to walk around. And i dislike the bullhooks. I do know it is a good idea for safety of the handlers to have SOME kind of bat or stick that they can use to tap mosha and tell him hey too much or too close back up. I'm not saying beat or strike. Because even as a baby mosha is big enough to hurt accidently if he gets rough

[NintendoSwii]

Awww :')

[conrad161]

this really made me cry with tears of joy its a very powerful video