Any parent will tell you how hard it is to watch their child struggle to accomplish a difficult task, but some will tell you that there are time you just have to sit back and watch them fail so that they can learn for themselves – perhaps giving them a little push in the right direction if they really look like they need it.
Apparently, that philosophy of childrearing is held by elephants as well, as seen in this video of a precocious baby pachyderm doing his damnedest to climb out of a shallow stream. The wee elephant valiantly fights to get a grip on the slippery banks and almost makes it out a few times, only to slip back towards failure. Until…
“C’mon, you got it… you got it… oh, okay you don’t got it. Here, lemme help you out there…” is what we imagine the elder elephant would be saying if, y’know, elephants were capable of human speech.
According to Tribun Medan, the video was taken in Barumun Nagari Wildlife Sanctuary located in North Sumatra. It’s not clear if the older elephant was the baby’s parent or simply a helpful member of the herd (elephants are known to babysit one another’s children).
We certainly won’t forget this elephant’s lesson anytime soon. And because we like you so much, here’s another video of a baby elephant at Baruman playing with a soccer ball, because cuteness.
