We take it for granted that people are smart enough to know that any violence against other human beings, or other species, is incorrect. With some exceptions here and there, most of us know right from wrong, because our brains evolved a conscience. The case of an elephant who ran to help his caretaker in trouble proves that animals can also feel, fear, and think.

Numerous experiments have been conducted to prove that some animals have interesting intellectual abilities, too. For example, the chimpanzee. These creatures can solve advanced problems, they can use tools, and have moral emotions.

The world’s largest land animals are also exceptionally smart creatures

With three times more neurons than human beings, elephants have impressive mental capabilities. They understand that sticks can help them scratch, and digging a hole to reach drinking water is nothing new for them. You probably know this one, but elephants also have extraordinary memories, and their trunks have some unbelievable skills.

Most importantly, elephants are known to be very empathetic

If an elephant is distressed, another one will surely do everything to comfort him: from emitting different vocal sounds, to stroking one another with their trunks. A caretaker in the nature park in Chian Mai, Thailand, wanted to know if the elephant he takes care of would help him.

To test the elephant, two men came up with a plan

A 17-year-old elephant, named Thonsri, has been in the nature park for years, and she got used to her caretaker. As the two became very close, the man wanted to know if Thonsri would feel the need to protect him from danger. He invited a friend and they decided to make a little experiment. The caretaker’s friend, the one who wears a bandana in the video, was supposed to throw the caretaker on the ground and to act as if he was aggressive towards him.

That’s exactly what they did.

“Hey you, leave my human alone!”

As soon as Thonsri heard the commotion, she ran towards her friend and took care of the situation.

You can see that the elephant is distressed by the way she’s flapping her ears and running around her caretaker to make sure that the attacker was gone. The experiment might seem cruel, the two men played with Thonsri’s feelings, but it serves as a great example of how wonderful beings elephants truly are.

Not only did Thonsri scare the violent man away, but she stayed by her caretaker’s side for a while

Of course, she wanted to make sure that her friend will be alright. Most humans would do the same, but it’s impressive when an elephant does it. Thonsri kneeled down and offered her trunk to help her friend stand up.

It’s a beautiful act of pure friendship and devotion. We hope that she got tons of peanuts for being such a good friend.

A hilarious ending

After she helped the caretaker stand back up, she was clearly so happy and began flapping her ears again. This time, it was an act of joy. However, she accidentally slapped the man with her ear.

What an adorable, clumsy giant?!

The ivory trade simply isn’t worth the lives of these precious animals

Unfortunately, around 90% of African elephants have been killed in the past century. That was mostly for the ivory. Let’s just hope that people will realize what a horrible statistic is, and they’ll leave the rest of the elephants alone.

According to World Wildlife Magazine, there are only 400 thousand elephants left in the world. A hundred years ago, there were over ten million of them. Terrible isn’t it?!

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: Animal Channel; ViralHog;