Baby Elephant Rejects Dog's Optimistic Invitation To Play

<p> <a class="checked-link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VhjiUofVws">YouTube/elephantnews</a> </p>
<p> <a class="checked-link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VhjiUofVws">YouTube/elephantnews</a> </p>

Interspecies friendships are one of the great quirks of the animal kingdom - like this tortoise who adopted a baby hippo, or this lonely gorilla who made friends with a kitten or this matching dalmatian and spotted sheep pair. They continuously tear down the species divide. But for some pairs, making friends isn't so easy.

Yindee, a young elephant calf living at the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand, learned this firsthand when Spotty the dog approached her to play. At first, things were going well.

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But all of a sudden, Yindee wasn't sure whether she wanted to move forward with the relationship. It was simply too much of a commitment.

(YouTube/elephantnews)

With Spotty trailing behind, she retreated to her safe space: behind mom's legs.

(YouTube/elephantnews)

See the entire encounter below:

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Yindee is one of many elephants living at the sanctuary in Chang Mai, Thailand. Many of the elephants have been rescued from miserable lives in the logging industry or as working animals giving tourists rides. See this page to learn more about the plight of working elephants, and how to support tourism that helps elephants.