A 22-year-old female elephant is being treated by vets after her foot was severely wounded in a land mine explosion on the Thai-Myanmar border.
Mae Ka Pae, as she is called, is the 13th mine casualty to be treated at the innovative Friends of Asian Elephant hospital since it began operating in 1993.
She arrived at the facility on Wednesday evening, a week after the accident, which shredded the sole of her left rear foot.
Injured: Mae Ka Pae waits for medical treatment at the Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital in Lampang, northern Thailand
Help: Workers clean the wounded elephant who has been described as ‘obedient’ by vets
‘We have to monitor her condition for 48 hours now that we cleaned the wound and injected pain killers. We will give her a tetanus shot later today. Overall, she is a good condition. She is obedient and can eat normally,’ said Dr Preecha Phuangkam, a veterinarian and the hospital director.
The elephant was injured at the frontier, which is strewn with land mines from fighting between the Myanmar government and ethnic minority rebels.
Preecha said her handlers might have let her wander to the less-developed Myanmar side of the border to find food.
Better now: With her wound dressed, the elephant completes her treatment