HEARTBREAKING

Five Elephants Die Trying to Save Baby Elephant in Thai Waterfall

Photos from the scene showed one of the elephants that survived the plunge trying to revive its fallen friend.

Six elephants fell to their death while trying to save each other from a waterfall in Thailand. The incident occurred after a baby elephant slipped over the waterfall in central Thailand’s Khao Yai National Park and several other elephants went in after it. Two other elephants that were struggling on a cliff nearby were saved and moved by Thai authorities, but the baby elephant was found dead along with five others, the BBC reports. Khanchit Srinoppawan, chief of the national park, told the BBC the two elephants who survived are being closely monitored, but they may have trouble surviving as elephants rely on living in large herds for protection and food. The accident could also take an emotional toll on the two due to elephants’ ability to grieve. “It’s like losing half your family," Edwin Wiek, the founder of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, told the BBC. “There's nothing you can do, it’s nature unfortunately.”