Elephant

Baby elephant is so concerned about her 'drowning' friend

The Save Elephant Foundation in Chiang Mai, Thailand, captured little Kham Lha racing to the aid of Darrick Thomson, the co-founder of the foundation and one of her favorite people ever.

Thomson was calling out to her on the shore, and she interpreted his calls as distress cries (he was totally fine, though). Kham Lha charged through the water, sheltering him with her body and offering her trunk for him to hold on to. Crisis averted.

Is it too late to save the elephant?

"I don't think anybody in the world has seen the number of dead elephants that I've seen over the last two years," he says. 

From above, we spot an elephant lying on its side in the cracked river mud. From a distance it could be mistaken for a resting animal. 

But the acrid stench of death hits us before we even land. 

Up close, it is a horror. 

He was a magnificent bull right in his prime, 45 to 50 years old. To get at his prized ivory tusks, poachers hacked off his face.  

Elephant carried by flood waters from India to Bangladesh

The four-ton female was separated from its herd in floods in northeast India in late June.

It is thought to have traveled around 620 miles, a journey that included crossing the mighty Brahmaputra River, on its way to northern Bangladesh.

The animal first became separated from the herd in Assam, India. The weak and exhausted beast spent several weeks stranded in a flooded area and nearly drowned in a rescue attempt Thursday.

But Friday -- World Elephant Day -- the pachyderm finally set its feet back on dry land.