The Tesso Nilo calf’s mother is 35 years old and a trooper: She was pregnant for 20-22 months before giving birth to the 90-kilo (198-pound) baby only a few days before World Elephant Day, according to the animal conservation organization.
The calf’s mother is part of an elite team of critically endangered Sumatran elephants and their handlers who protect villages from coming into conflict with nearby wild elephants.
Only four elephants have been born to the group since it was established by the World Wildlife Fund and Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry in 2004.
The so-called Flying Squad is made up of four trained adult elephants and their eight handlers, called mahouts, who deploy noisemakers, lights and a truck to drive back the wild elephants who try to enter local villages.
Four of these squads exist in Riau Province — where the palm oil, pulp and paper industries have resulted in “some of the world’s most rapid rates of deforestation” — leading hungry elephants to leave the shrinking forests to seek out crops from local villages for food.
The peace-keeping teams of elephants and people work to avoid conflict between people in struggling communities and the elephant population, which is dealing with a smaller habitat and limited food sources.
Rare — and adorable — baby elephant born in Indonesia | The Upbeat - Yahoo! News
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