by Adorable Moment Struggling Baby Elephant Gets A Helping Nudge Up Steep Riverbank
A new wildlife sighting shows an elephant herd’s matriarch using her trunk to help lift a baby elephant up the side of a riverbank after he found it too steep of a climb.
New footage, shared by wildlife application, Latest Sightings, shows an elephant herd trying to get out of a riverbed via a steep path when the young calf kept slipping. The matriarch came up from behind and gave the young calf a helping hand, nudging the little one on its way.
The Majale river only flows for a few months of the year, but even once the surface water has disappeared, there is still water under the sand, which elephants will often dig to get to the water.
Heartwarming footage has captured the moment a baby elephant was helped up a steep riverbank by the herd’s matriarch after getting sᴛᴜᴄᴋ at the bottom. The scene was captured by film maker Kim Wolhuter, 62, who was visiting the Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana. He spotted the ᴅɪsᴛʀᴇssᴇᴅ baby elephant trying to follow its mother up the bank of the Majale River and began filming the scene.
Footage shows the huge animals folding their front legs and pushing themselves up with their rear limbs as they clamber up out of the sandy riverbed. But the tiny calf is not strong enough to get any traction until the matriarch elephant, bringing up the rear, gives it a nudge with her trunk.
‘Its mom only later realised what happened and was coming to the rescue, but her little one had already been helped. We all know that elephants are caring and help each other and the matriarch of the herd came to the rescue, making sure no one was left behind!’
The young elephant was soon reunited with its mother at the top of the river bank
