Playful baby elephant sits on woman's lap in Thailand
By Ben Hooper

BANGKOK, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- A tourist visiting Thailand was treated to an especially close encounter with a baby elephant who fancied himself a lapdog.

The video, posted to YouTube by Andrew Way, shows the "playful" baby elephant showing his affection for a female tourist by climbing into her lap while she sits on the ground.

The elephant makes himself comfortable on the woman's lap while she pets his back.

Full story: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2016/02/22/Playful-baby-elephant-sits-on-womans-lap-in-Thailand/7051456151795/

-- UPI 2016-02-23

I wonder where the mother of the baby is? They tend to be extremely protective of their babies.

I wonder where the mother of the baby is? They tend to be extremely protective of their babies.

You have to wonder. Had the 'baby' been separated from its mother or was it 'nearby' and a possible danger to the tourists.

This is a tourist facility no doubt with the calf being born at the facility. The mother was undoubtedly nearby but acclimated to humans. The real question is why won't that woman stand up and stop rolling around in the mud like a pig?

This is a tourist facility no doubt with the calf being born at the facility. The mother was undoubtedly nearby but acclimated to humans. The real question is why won't that woman stand up and stop rolling around in the mud like a pig?

Perhaps yes, perhaps no.

http://www.warthai.org/news.php?readmore=84

Dutch national Edwin Wiek, founder of the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, jumped on the wild elephants' gruesome demise in Kaeng Krachan and Kiu Buri parks to draw attention to a lucrative trade in baby elephants that has been carried out with the seeming compliance of government officials.

In an article titled Thai Elephants Are Being Killed for Tourist Dollars published in The Nation newspaper on January 24, Wiek said that the six elephants had been killed to get their babies, not for elephant meat and ivory as claimed by government officials.

He argued that the incident demonstrated that the trade in baby pachyderms was no longer just a cross-border business with Myanmar, but that poachers were now targeting Thailand's own depleted herd of fewer than 2,000 wild elephants.

Based on his own investigations, Wiek estimates that two to three baby elephants are poached from the wild per week.

Hard to watch video:

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/baby-elephants-captured-mistreated-to-supply-thailands-tourism-industry-20140709-zt0xw.html

I wonder where the mother of the baby is? They tend to be extremely protective of their babies.

There is another video very similar to this on YouTube, where the calf snuggles up to the handler in a Thai zoo (?) and falls asleep. The calf really pushes him about trying to find a comfortable position (like a dog on a sofa). Just almost out of camera is Mum with a leg rope, busy eating. She every now and again during videoing leans across and gives the calf a sniff, to see if everything ok. Nice !

This lady is just extraordinary. Sitting there encouraging the elephant into this ridiculous behaviour for her own indulgence.

Re: Post #4 _“The real question is why won't that woman stand up and stop rolling around in the mud like a pig?”

Re: Post #7_”This lady is just extraordinary. Sitting there encouraging the elephant into this ridiculous behaviour for her own indulgence.”

My reply to both: “Indeed, that tourist lady is most extraordinary, especially when compared with the average westerner, who would have totally freaked-out, and run away, from a "playful" baby elephant, while creaming at the top of their lungs.

Instead, that “Braveheart” example of western-womanhood, seized the opportunity of a lifetime, by accepting a complimentary invitation, and to inter-act with a new-born member of a totally different species. Apparently, that lady is a highly evolved example of humanity, while the Big Mama Elephant (protectively standing nearby) knew it.

Way to go, lady! And indulge yourself to the max.Perhaps, someday more of us less-judgemental, and opinionated “human-beings”, could also learn something new, from those pigs, maybe, eh?