A traffic accident occurred on the East-West Expressway in Perak, Malaysia, when a truck hit and killed a baby elephant about a year old while crossing the road.
When the baby elephant was hit by a truck and its body was stuck under the truck, the mother elephant frantically charged towards the truck in the hope of rescuing her baby. However, when she realized her baby was dead, the mother elephant stood there motionless next to the baby’s body for many hours.
The collision damaged the front of the truck, but did not cause any human casualties.
The mother elephant stood next to the baby elephant’s body lying under the truck for many hours, refusing to leave. The authorities then had to mobilize animal experts, using chains to move the mother elephant to another place so as not to obstruct traffic on the highway.
Many passersby said that they later saw the mother elephant return to the place where the baby elephant was hit by the truck, standing there for a long time before leaving.
The video of the incident went viral after being posted on social media. Many netizens said they were truly moved by the mother elephant’s affection for her child.
According to Dr. Jamhuri Jamaluddin, a zoologist from Universiti Putra Malaysia, elephants are animals with a very good spatial memory, so the mother elephant can still find the location where the baby elephant was hit and killed to return after being moved to another place.
“Elephants have a very good spatial memory and specific area. However, science has not yet been able to explain how elephants can remember space so well,” Dr. Jamhuri Jamaluddin shared.
Dr. Jamhuri also said that elephants are highly social and communal animals, forming a close bond between mother, child and members of the herd.
“Elephants have very close relationships. They can sense when a member of their herd or offspring dies. They also remember the location of the bodies of their herd members and return to visit, even when the entire body has rotted and only bones remain,” Dr. Jamhuri added.
Elephants are highly social animals. Adult elephants have no natural enemies due to their size and strength, but baby elephants are often the target of predators, so they are often strictly protected by their mothers and herd members to fight predators.
Female elephants in the herd are ready to care for and breastfeed their babies in case their mothers are sick or die for some reason.