A baby elephant rescued from a well late last month in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak has been rejected by the herd after attempts were made to release him to the wild.

Huynh Trung Luan, director at Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center in Ea Sup District, has confirmed that the center made another failed attempt at reintroducing the two-month-old calf to a wild elephant herd on the evening of April 2.

On March 28, the baby elephant was found stuck inside a well in the area of land managed by Chu Ma Lanh Forestry Company.

DLECC, Ea Sup District Forest Protection Unit, and Chu Ma Lanh worked together to save the elephant in distress, and managed to salvage it by around 3:00 pm the same day.

The rescued baby elephant is given water moments after it was saved by Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center in Dak Lak Province on March 28, 2016. Photo: Tuoi Tre

“After the successful rescue, the calf was released into the wild on the same evening but couldn’t find its herd, so we are keeping it under our care,” Nguyen Cong Chung, deputy director at DLECC, said on March 29.

Another unfruitful attempt was made on Saturday as the herd prevented the baby elephant from joining them from nearly 30 meters away, even turning hostile and destroying the guardhouse of DLECC built inside Chu Ma Lanh Company.

The Huffington Post recently reported on an incident of herd rejection occurring in elephants, when two-week-old ‘Ellie’ the elephant was neglected by its own herd and left in a terrible state of health before being taken to Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage in South Africa in late October 2015.

Are you familiar with these big mammals and their social behaviors? Send your stories to ttn@tuoitre.com.vn.

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