IT APPEARS the heart wrenching story of a mother elephant who lost her calf has yet to end. Previously, the calf was killed when a lorry crashed into it during the night along the East–West Highway (Gerik–Jeli).
The mother refused to leave its dead body and was seen attempting to push the vehicle aside to recover her calf.
The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) with the aid of ten officers had since removed the mother only for her to return, searching for the lost calf.
In the video which has gone viral, she could be seen returning to the site where the calf had been killed.
Mak dia datang semula tempat lokasi anak dia mati 😢 pic.twitter.com/yVMZ5UPoPw
— ًِ (@bckupacc99) May 12, 2025
Netizen @farahin_diyana said the mother should be allowed to see where her calf had been buried so she could know that it was dead. Or else she would sit at the spot for a long time.
Also, @nrhnsharol claimed that elephants have a very good memory, that they could remember a person for two decades even after meeting them once.
Observing the video @naevislay further said that the government did not put lights on the road as this may disturb the ecosystem of the wild life.
This was in reply to some commentators who attributed the death of the calf to the poor lighting along the highway.
Also, there was a very good reason why the mother elephant was not allowed to see the dead body of her calf when it was removed. Apparently they feared that she might get angry, thinking that the calf was still alive.
@naevislay claimed she was not an elephant expert but received this information from an elephant expert.
While most of the netizens expressed sympathy towards the mother elephant, one netizen with psychopathic tendencies said members of the lorry driver should enter the jungle and shoot dead every elephant since the elephants do not pay taxes anyway. “It is better to be extinct than to live as an animal,” he said.
Reading the comment, we have a very different opinion on who should be shot first. On a separate note, SPANA.org said an Asian elephant has a gestation period of about 18 to 22 months, making it the longest gestation period of all mammals.
It seems that the mother elephant will take quite awhile to get a new bundle of joy to heal her sorrow.
Unlike other animals, elephants usually only have one baby at a time. However, there are cases where elephants can have twins, but this only happens in one per cent of elephant births.
PBS.org further mentioned that for the first two to three years of life, baby elephants are utterly dependent on their mothers for feeding.
After age two, when a calf starts to eat on its own, the mother’s milk remains a critical part of its diet. A calf typically remains with their parents until about 16 years. —May 6, 2025
Main image: the dodo
