Humans Help This Baby Elephant Climb out of a Hole—and You’ll Never Guess Where

[Omaha Steve]

China’s demand for ivory notoriously drives poaching rates in Africa, but the country may not be a bad place to be a wild pachyderm.

http://www.takepart.com/video/2015/01/22/baby-elephant-rescue-china?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-01-22

January 22, 2015 By Kristina Bravo

Kristina Bravo is Assistant Editor at TakePart.

Watching baby elephant rescues is always gratifying, but what makes this one special is where it happened.

This week, a young pachyderm stuck in a tough spot got some help from humans in Yunnan province in China, a country infamous for a thriving ivory black market that’s been driving poaching (and wars) in Africa. Elephant tusks are purchased as material for chopsticks and other trinkets that are considered status symbols.

Local villagers found the calf struggling to climb out of a two-meter-deep water storage pit in a nature reserve. They called the police, who shoveled dirt for 30 minutes to lower one side of the pit so the elephant could make its way out.

It likely had been stuck since the day before.

“Because it rained yesterday, the ground around the pit was slippery,” said police officer Tang Zhouxing, according to The Guardian.

FULL story at link.

[Dont call me Shirley]

1. Aw!

[Omaha Steve]

2. Kick