At Thailand’s Elephant Nature Park, a mother elephant and her daughter shared a touching reunion after being separated for nearly three years due to the tourism industry.
This emotional moment, captured on camera, highlights the deep bonds elephants form with one another.
MeBai, a female Asian elephant, was separated from her mother, Mae Yui, when she was three.
Forced to carry tourists through the streets, MeBai endured harsh conditions for almost three years, severely impacting her health.
As she began to lose weight and her health deteriorated, her owner transferred her to the “Pamper a Pachyderm” program at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai province.
“When she first arrived, she was quite nervous, and we took care to feed her well until she was healthy again,” wrote Sangduen “Lek” Chailert, the founder of Elephant Nature Park, in a blog post about the rescue. “We also began to search for her mother.”
Chailert discovered that Mae Yui worked at another tourist camp over 60 miles away. After contacting the camp’s owner, a reunion was arranged. A team of caretakers embarked on a four-day hike with MeBai to bring her to her mother.
The emotional reunion was captured on video, showing the elephants caressing each other with their trunks and flapping their ears in apparent joy.
The keepers noted an initial period of uncertainty, but the pair soon displayed happiness at being together again.
Mae Yui and MeBai will remain at the sanctuary together until they are ready to return to the wild. “The Elephant Nature Park is working to rehabilitate Mae Yui and MeBai so they can return to the wild and live free,” the sanctuary stated.
