Meet the first two elephants to have been given prosthetic legs after they were severely injured when they stepped on landmines in south east Asia.
Mosha and Motola, who live at the Asian Elephant Foundation in northern Thailand, both lost legs more than a decade ago when they were just calfs.
Mosha and Motola (pictured), who live at the Asian Elephant Foundation in northern Thailand, have been fitted with prosthetic limbs after losing their legs in landmine accidents more than a decade ago
As they grow larger, surgeons have to design new and stronger legs for them and Mosha (pictured) received her ninth prosthetic on Wednesday
Motala, who was pictured being fitted for her prosthetic leg on Wednesday, stepped on a landmine 16 years ago near the Thai-Myanmar border
As elephants grow larger, surgeons at the Asian Elephant Foundation in northern Thailand have to design new and stronger legs for them
Motala (pictured) stepped on a landmine 16 years ago and has been cared for by the Asian Elephant Foundation since. She became the second elephant to be fitted with a prosthetic leg after Mosha
Mosha was first fitted with her prosthetic eight years ago by surgeon Therdchai Jivacate. As she has grown, he has designed new, longer and stronger legs for her
‘The way she walked was unbalanced and her spine was going to bend,’ Therdchai, 72, said of Mosha before receiving her latest leg. ‘She would have died.’
Mosha , who weighed only 600 kg when she was given her first artificial limb, now weighs over 2,000 kg
Engineer Boonyu Thippaya (left) and a member of his team work to adjust a prosthetic leg for an elephant injured by a landmine
Engineer Boonyu Thippaya works on building a new prosthetic leg for one of the animals at the Asian Elephant Foundation in northern Thailand
Founded in 1993, the facility was the world’s first elephant hospital and currently has 17 patients
Mosha and Motola, who live at the Asian Elephant Foundation in northern Thailand, both lost legs more than a decade ago when they were just calfs