Faa-mai doesn’t want to become a movie star. That’s not why the elephant jumped in front of cameras when they came to visit Elephant Nature Park in Thailand.
Faa-mai was just trying to get closer to her favorite person.
That person is her handler Lek. Faa-mai absolutely loves Lek. So much so that she just wants her all for herself.
A camera crew and journalist came to the Elephant Nature Park in order to interview Lek about her with the elephants.
Elephant Nature Park was established in Chiang Mai province in Northern Thailand in the 90s.
They operate as a sanctuary and rescue center for elephants and have provided respite for dozens of distressed elephants all over Thailand.
They serve as a rainforest restoration operation, replanting 25 acres of trees each year for five years.
They also invited visitors to their site to learn about local endangered species, elephants, and nature.
Elephant Nature Park has been awarded by the Smithsonian and featured in National Geographic, Discovery Channel, BBC, Animal Planet, and more.
The camera crew arrived at the sanctuary and worked to set up their shot asking Lek to step forward before inviting her to share what she wanted to discuss.
She was explaining how grateful she was to SSG for supporting their Palang Panya project that allowed them to host study activities at their park.
She shared that it was her hope that the people of Thai would use what they’ve learned at the park and apply their new skills to help develop their local communities.
Just as she was nailing her interivew, Faa-mai decided that interview time was over. She decided that it was play time.
She started to make her way over to Lek.
But then she walked right up to the camera and stood between the camera crew and her trainer.
The crew marveled over how close they were to the elephant and how interested they creature was in what they were doing.
Lek suggested that they move to another location to film.
Faa-mai was getting a little to close to their camera equipment and Lek was afraid that the elephant would break it.
The men then stood back but were still delighted by Faa-mai’s presence. Faa-mai didn’t actually care about the camera crew.
She just wanted to play with Lek and began to reach out for her trainer with her trunk.
Lek quickly ducked and moved. But Faa-mai wasn’t about to give up. She twisted her trunk around Lek’s body to bring her close.
Lek wriggled herself out of the elephant’s loose grip and pushed her trunk back.
Poor Faa-mai looked kind of sad.
Lek then walked off, telling Faa-mai to follow her so they could play together with the other elephants.
Faa-mai followed her trainer so that they could stay close to one another.
Lek explained that Faa-mai doesn’t like when Lek gives others attention and that the elephant was attempting to separate Lek from the crew so that all the attention could be back on her.
Check out Faa-mai interrupting the interview in the video below!
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