After getting stuck in an abandoned water pit for hours, a weary adult Asian elephant was helped out by rescuers in southwest China, Global Times reported.
Residents of the village in Yunnan created the water pit, which is nearly 2 meters deep. Those who found the elephant believed she’d been foraging for food when she fell in. The size of the pit made it impossible for her to turn around, let alone climb out. Observers noticed her plight and formed a rescue group to get her out.
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“Using an excavator, they created a gap for the exhausted elephant to escape,” CGTN Europe posted on Instagram, along with a video of her rescue.
In the video, the elephant curiously watches as the excavator scrapes the dirt around the hole just enough for her to find her footing and pull herself out. After pausing to stare at her liberators, she lumbers off.
The rescue group observed her for the next 30 minutes as she rejoined her herd in the wild.