Elephants are not as dumb as people think. They are brilliant. If something bothers them, they show it. In 2015, an Indian elephant did this.

People gathered to watch this elephant. He had been digging a hole in the mud for 11 hours. The villagers knew this wasn’t normal. Something had made the elephant act this way. The witnesses were horrified when they realized what he was doing.

In 2015, a large herd of about 60 elephants was seen in northeastern India. They had traveled long distances when something terrible happened.

The elephants were in Chatra, about 100 miles from Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand. One elephant stood out because of how he was acting.

This elephant was acting strangely. The villagers watched him for hours in a muddy field. Why was he alone?

The elephant made a fuss. The woman was angry, and the villagers didn’t know why. The elephant dug its trunk into the mud.

They saw it digging. The elephant dug a hole with its trunk, removing as much mud as it could.

It would back away, obviously tired. It dug again and again! It dug from dusk till dawn. What was going on?

The villagers had to be careful. The elephant could be dangerous. They didn’t know what it was, but they soon saw that her calf had fallen into the dirty ditch and was trapped!

The mother elephant made things worse by digging the hole. She was pushing the hole, which could have drowned her calf.

The villagers knew the elephant would hurt the calf if they left them alone. The calf could drown or starve. But what could they do?

Jitendra Tiwari filmed the rescue and told the villagers what happened. The villagers brought bananas to the ditch and chased the mother away.

“We used that time to clear the mud near the well, which was making it difficult to rescue her calf,” said Jitendra, who was a safe distance from the mother elephant. Would it work?

The villagers moved the banana truck away from the ditch so the elephant could return for her calf. Now, she had a flat surface to work on and could not push more mud into the hole.

After 11 hours, the elephant was finally able to rescue her calf. With a few nifty moves, she pulled her calf to safety. It seemed the villagers and the mother had worked for nothing!

The calf was back on the mainland so she could relax. The villagers said the elephant and calf were intertwining their trunks, like an elephant kissing.

The mother and son left the village together, ready to catch up with the rest of the herd. The two will never forget the villagers who helped them!