A heart-wrenching video has gone viral showing an elephant desperately trying to move a lorry that had stopped in the middle of the road and is believed to have crushed her calf on a Malaysian highway in Kuala Lumpur.
The distressing incident took place yesterday, on Mother’s Day, with people voicing their opinions on social media. “On Mother’s Day, an elephant showed us what a mother’s love is,” one commenter expressed.
The video left viewers emotional over the mother’s unwavering determination to protect her child. The animal’s sorrowful cries can be heard in the short clip as she encircled the lorry.
The tragic incident occurred around 2am and involved a lorry that was carrying chickens. The baby elephant was seemingly hit by the lorry and became trapped beneath the front end of the vehicle.
Yusoff Shariff, the director of the Perak Wildlife and National Parks Department, said they were alerted to the accident at 3.30am, to which they responded quickly.
He stated that “upon our arrival, we found that a five-year-old male elephant had died after being hit by the lorry while attempting to cross the road. Our team was dispatched to the scene to conduct operations, monitor the situation, and safely relocate the mother elephant to a safer area.”
The mother elephant was estimated to be between 25 and 27 years old and weighed around 2.2 tons. Her calf’s body was later removed and, according to standard procedures, will be buried.
Gerik District Police Chief, Superintendent Zulkifli Mahmood, confirmed that a statement regarding the accident would be released shortly.
Emotional comments have flooded the internet over the heart-breaking video, and a poignant cartoon of the baby elephant has been viewed more than 700,000 times. The illustration depicts the baby calf growing wings, with the text ‘see you again someday, mum.’
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