Mummy To The Rescue! Baby Elephant Cries Out For Help After Getting Stuck In Its Zoo Enclosure… But Is Saved When Its Relatives Run To Help Him
It’s every mother’s most natural instinct, to come running when she hears her child yelp for help.
So when Omysha the baby elephant got stuck belly-up and let out a cry at Zurich Zoo, that’s exactly what her mum, Indi, did.
In adorable scenes captured on a visitor’s mobile phone, the six-week-old calf, whose name means ‘smile’ in Hindi, is seen trying hopelessly to clamber over a ridge in her enclosure.
Adorable: In adorable scenes captured on a visitor’s mobile phone, the calf, whose name means ‘smile’ in Hindi, is seen trying hopelessly to climb over a ridge in her enclosure
On the brink: But she soon discovers she hasn’t the strength as she teeters on the brink before tumbling down onto her back
Yelp for help: Unable to right herself, she lets out a cry for help that would melt the stoniest of human hearts
But she soon discovers she hasn’t the strength as she teeters on the brink before tumbling down onto her back.
Unable to right herself, she lets out a cry for help that would melt the stoniest of human hearts.
And in an instant her mother Indi and another female relative thunder over in a cloud of dust to pull the hapless youngster back to her feet.
Mother’s instinct: And in an instant her mother Indi and another female relative thunder over in a cloud of dust to pull the hapless youngster back to her feet
Relief: Using a combination of trunk and tusk, the Asian elephants lift her to her feet as anxious crowds look on
Using a combination of trunk and tusk, the Asian elephants lift her to her feet as anxious crowds look on.
Born on June 17 this year, Omysha is the youngest elephant at Zurich Zoo.
She is the third calf of Indi, a 28-year-old elephant born in Burma who ended up in the Swiss Knie Circus before being moved to the Zurich zoo in 1999.
Ayesha’s father is Maxi, a 44-year-old bull originally from Thailand.
New edition: Born on June 17 this year, Omysha is the youngest elephant at Zurich Zoo
Mother and daughter: She is the third calf of Indi, a 28-year-old elephant born in Burma who ended up in the Swiss Knie Circus before being moved to the Zurich zoo in 1999
The curator at the Zoo said: ‘At the beginning she did not know what to do with her trunk. I had the feeling that there would soon be a knot in it.
‘She spends lots of her time with her mother and aunts who are always watching over her – once she tried to go swimming and they had to fish her out.’
Elephants are known to have tight bonds with herd members outside their immediate family.
Mothers and their calves share a special connection, but adults have been known to watch over little ones that aren’t theirs.
Other members of the clan may act as babysitters – a practice that helps young female elephants prepare for motherhood.
Asian elephants like Omysha are an endangered species with a wild population of between 40,000 and 50,000, the Zurich Zoo said.