A completely blind 30-year-old elephant was rescued from a circus and brought to the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai – where she met her new herd for the first time!
The touching moment was captured on camera!
Before being rescued by the Save Elephant Foundation volunteers, Ploy Thong had a sorrowful life.
Ploy Thong was forced to carry people on her back on the streets of Thailand for over 16 years. Before then, she was part of a circus.
Once she arrived at the elephant sanctuary, things for her were about to change her life completely!
After her arrival, Chiang Mai started to send low vibrations out – to let the herd know that she had arrived.
However, it did not take long until the herd rushed to greet and welcome their new family member in a heartwarming fashion.
“Both eyes blind, she transported tourists every day,” staff from the Save Elephant Foundation said.
“Every day, she was saddled early and carried riders until the sunset. She used her trunk to sniff the way while the tourist rode on her back.”
Ploy Thong’s journey to freedom has begun!
The herd hurried over to her to welcome her, and this just shows how sensitive these creatures are.
Within her first few moments at the sanctuary in Chiang Mai, the staff knew that she would be loved and protected for the rest of her life.
Watch the loving moment between Ploy Thong and her new family below:
“Elephants are well-known for their intelligence, close family ties and social complexity, and they remember for years other individuals and places,” an Elephant expert wrote.
“They live in a fluid fission-fusion society with relationships radiating out from the mother-offspring bond through families, bond groups, clans, independent males and beyond to strangers.”
