A juvenile Asian elephant with its mother near a body of water in a lush green natural setting, illuminated by daytime light. 1:54
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Mom and nanny share one very busy baby elephant

Wan Mai is a baby Asian elephant, and she has two grown-ups keeping an eye on her. One is her mother, Mae Mai. The other is her nanny, SriNuan. more

The three live in the care of the Save Elephant Foundation, a nonprofit in Thailand that protects Asian elephants. They head to a river nearby to cool off, and the two adults wade out and stand quietly in the middle.

Wan Mai isn't interested in standing quietly. Up goes her tail, and off she runs to one of them. After a bit with her, she turns and heads for the other, swimming against the current, and dunks her face under for a moment.

Two elephants, one large and one small, stand partly underwater beside a grassy bank. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Wan Mai stands in the river next to one of her two guardians.

Next she sits down in the water beside one of her guardians. That lasts about as long as you would expect. She tries to get under the big elephant's belly, doesn't make it, and comes up wet from head to tail.

She squeaks through all of it. Comment after comment mentions those happy little squeaks and trumpets, and almost as many mention the patience of the two grown-ups. SriNuan gets special praise for keeping her cool while the baby rolls around beneath her.

A juvenile Asian elephant with its mother near a body of water in a lush green natural setting, illuminated by daytime light. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Wan Mai is a baby Asian elephant, and she has two grown-ups keeping an eye on her.

After a while, one of the adults dips her head and puts her own face under the water. Then all three walk out of the river and onto the bank.

On dry land, Wan Mai makes the rounds. She snuggles up to one guardian, then the other, nuzzling each in turn.

A baby elephant nuzzles an adult elephant near the water, with green plants behind them. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
On the bank, Wan Mai snuggles up to her mother and her nanny in turn.

Her mom and her nanny put up with every bit of it. Elephants are good people, somebody wrote, and after this trip to the river it is hard to disagree.

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