Elephant pulls Thai conservationist 'under her belly' to shield her from torrential rain in cute video

When Faa Mai showed signs of being empathetic towards her favorite human in torrential weather, she cleared all the doubts about elephants being enormously kind. Award-winning Thai conservationist and animal activist, Lek Chailert, who goes by @lek_chailert on Instagram, shared a video of Faa Mai protecting her from heavy rainfall. She said a good herd leader knows how to protect their members, and Mai, the elephant, is no less than that.

“When it began to rain, Faa Mai quickly pulled me under her belly to shield me from getting wet,” she captioned the post. The video was posted on June 19 and has received a massive number of views since then. A total of 9.5 million people loved watching Faa’s kind act towards Chailert. The activist, wearing a blue raincoat, started rushing towards a shelter as it rained, but in seconds, Mai lifted her trunk and covered her upper body to prevent Chailert from getting wet. As soon as she did that, her fellow elephants came forward to form a shield around the duo.

Time and again, research has shown that, like any other human, elephants are also very emotional. According to World Animal Protection, their intelligence is “overlooked by humans.” Their kind behavior stems from the fact that they mostly spend time in the close vicinity of family members. According to the organization, African elephants spend 90% of their life just 5 meters away from their family. Since their lifetime is spent caring for each other, they subsequently develop feelings of care and kindness towards their herd — particularly female elephant leaders who never leave their families behind.

Despite their huge size, these wild animals can be even bigger empaths than humans, according to Alex Van der Walt, B.Sc., author at Animals Around The Globe. With their brain size being one of the largest, weighing around 11 pounds, Walt believed that they could “feel grief more greatly than we do.” She explained that elephants are exposed to harder lives than us. They face more survival struggles and dependence on their herd, which makes them more vulnerable to their herd members. Given their mute nature, humans have exploited these magnificent beasts for decades.

For Faa Mai, Chailert is her closest human friend from her mixed herd, showing that animals don't discriminate and neither does pure love. In another post, Chailert shared that Mai loves her singing; that she uses her trunk to gently lift Chailert’s hand and then point to a spot where she wants to listen to music. This signals the deep connection formed between the two, especially since wild animals don't get too comfortable too quickly around human beings. Given our track record with animal cruelty, this attitude makes sense. Once at the Mai's desired spot, Chailert sings for her, and soon other members also join the group. Chailert runs a non-profit organization called Elephant Nature Park, and she regularly posts updates on her Instagram profile.

You can follow Chailert on @lek_chailert to learn more about elephants and witness their overwhelming kindness.