The bodies of five more wild elephants were discovered in the Khao Yai National Park this morning, three days after a herd slid and fell from a waterfall.
The grim discovery raised the death toll to 11 stemming from Saturday’s incident. The five bodies were spotted by park drones in a waterway about 1 kilometer from the Haew Narok Waterfall, where six elephant bodies were discovered the day they fell.
Khao Yai monitors 2 surviving elephants of herd killed in waterfall plunge
While park rangers are attempting to retrieve the bodies, the cause of their deaths was not yet confirmed.
“We assume that they all are from the same herd. We’re investigating what caused their deaths,” Kanchit Srinoppawan, Khao Yai National Park chief, said Tuesday.
From the Saturday tragedy, only two elephants — a mother and her calf — survived after they were trapped by a flash flood near the waterfall. They were assisted by park officials who tossed food to help them to regain strength and climb back into the forest. Drones were used to monitor the condition of the two surviving members of the herd.
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Khao Yai monitors 2 surviving elephants of herd killed in waterfall plunge
