In many ways, the baby elephant in this video is acting just like a loving dog with their owner.
A two-week-old elephant calf in Thailand had had an amazing start to life. She was born in a sanctuary with plenty of food and lots of room.
Naturally, the little baby loved her mommy. But she also started forming bonds with her caretakers. She didn’t realize why these humans were so friendly. She was just glad they were there.
She soon formed a very strong attachment with one particular caretaker named Allie.
But one day, even Allie was shocked by what the baby elephant did.
She walked right up to her and plodded herself into her lap. Naturally, Allie wrapped an arm around the calf’s body and snuggled her back.
The two were showing how much they loved one another.
It was clear from Allie’s expression that she had had no idea that this was going to happen. But she was so glad that it had.
Then Allie started petting the cute elephant’s head, just making sure that the elephant knew she was loved.
Allie had spent every single day with the elephant. She knew that the baby loved her. But this sign of affection was something else.
Luckily, someone was filming the heartwarming moment. The footage appeared online, where it soon went viral. To date, it has gained over 9.2 million views. It also has more than 114,000 likes and 3,500 comments. People have been saying things like this:
This was Allie and the elephant’s first cuddle, but it definitely wasn’t the last.
It won’t surprise anyone to learn that elephants are super smart. After all, the phrase, “An elephant never forgets,” has existed for how long? But this video shows that they’re loving as well as intelligent.
In fact, people who study nature consider elephants to be, “one of the world’s most empathic species.”
And their ability to consider another living being’s feelings makes them rare in the animal world. Very few species are known to do this.
And elephants are also great at making friends, both with their fellow elephants and other humans.
Female Asian elephants can have up to 50 friends, which, let’s face it, is more than many humans have!
And there are plenty of other examples of elephants being friendly on YouTube.
In fact, the most popular elephant cuddling video on the site has an incredible 22 million views.
Like the other video, it comes from a sanctuary in Thailand.
In this video, the baby elephant is so happy to see his favorite human that he hugs him with his trunk. In fact, the animal is so enthusiastic about hugging the human that he knocks his cap off!
Then the man lies down on the ground to make eye contact with the elephant. The elephant gets up and lies on the man’s body, snuggling with him.
The man tries to sit up, but the elephant pushes back. “Oh, you really wanna cuddle,” the man says.
After that, the man sits up. The baby elephant walks in front of him and sits on his lap.
Soon, the elephant is lying down on the ground again, and the man is cuddling him.
When you woke up this morning, did you think you would get the urge to cuddle an elephant today?
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