What makes an elephant abandon her calf – and is it a growing problem? | Thailand

Khao Tom, a two-month-old elephant, plays with a wildlife officer, elbowing him in the face and wrapping his trunk around his wrist. When she raises her trunk in the air, signaling that she is hungry, the rescue center team seems relieved: she is not eating well. A veterinarian prepares a small bottle of formula which she eagerly swallows.

Khao Tom has been in the care of Thailand’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife since September, when rangers rescued her from an agricultural area in Lam Khlong Ngu National Park. Born with a congenital condition affecting her knees, she had difficulty keeping up with the herd. A few days after her birth, her mother left without her.

“We didn’t think she would make it,” said Natthanon Panpetch, senior veterinarian and director of the Bueng Chawak Wildlife Rescue Center. The calf had scratches all over her body, her mother had tried to drag her through the forest to follow the herd, and a digestive infection had left her extremely weak.

She survived thanks to round-the-clock care and a diet of rice porridge – Tom Khao in Thai. As the team shared updates on social media, the Thai public rallied behind the baby elephant, sending toys, formula and donations.

The Khao Tom case is not an isolated incident. In 2025, media reported at least five more baby elephants lost or abandoned in Thailand.

A database of reported cases in South and Southeast Asia, compiled by the Guardian, showed a significant increase: from an average of around two per year between 2015 and 2022, to nine last year and 14 in 2025. This dataset, however, is not exhaustive and only includes incidents reported by the media. What is causing elephant herds to abandon their calves, and does this visibility reflect a broader trend?

Joshua Plotnik, a psychology professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York, has studied elephant behavior in Thailand for nearly 20 years. His research has demonstrated, among other things, that elephants can recognize themselves in mirrors, a sign of self-awareness.

According to Plotnik, “abandonments are very rare,” even when a calf is sick or injured. Indeed, female elephants invest enormously in their young: gestation lasts almost two years and the baby elephants remain dependent on their mother for several additional years.

However, “elephant mothers and families can sometimes reject a calf,” especially if the mother is “stressed, or when circumstances jeopardize the safety of the rest of the herd,” he says. Calves can also be left alone if their mother is killed.

Habitat loss and human-elephant conflict are increasing sources of stress for wild elephants. Elephants are highly mobile and rely on large areas of forest for food and water. But in the different ecosystems of their range, these forests are diminishing and becoming more and more fragmented. A recent study published in the journal Nature suggests that 64% of Asian elephant habitat has been lost since 1700.

Elephants’ behavioral flexibility helps them adapt to changing landscapes: they can learn to move through fragmented habitats and attack crops to survive. “This adaptability, unfortunately and paradoxically, can lead to an increase in conflicts involving humans,” says Plotnik.

As natural ranges shrink, elephants move closer to farms, villages and roads. These changes “may affect movement patterns, divide social groups or trigger aversive behaviors,” which, in turn, can lead to calves being separated, he says.

Some media reports of stray calves give no reason for the separation. Others blame falls or encounters with humans and human-dominated environments. In 2024, in Indonesia, a calf just months old was separated from its family after farmers drove the herd away from their crops. Earlier this year, another calf wandered into a village in Malaysia and was caught in a bison trap.

In the Indian state of Assam, an eight-week-old elephant fell into a ditch while crossing a tea plantation, before being rescued by a local wildlife center supported by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

While records from the Assam Wildlife Center show a slight decrease in admissions of displaced calves over the past five years – which veterinarians link to less severe flooding in the region – IFAW describes a “growing challenge” in this region of India, where elephant and rhino calves continue to be separated from their herds each year due to flooding, shrinking habitats and increasing human-human conflict. wildlife.

It’s difficult to determine whether these incidents are actually becoming more common across Asian elephant ranges, Plotnik says. The increase in high-profile cases is likely linked to increased reporting and media coverage, although he believes increasing human pressures “are probably also having an impact on the rate of separation of calf herds.”

Khao Tom is unlikely to return to the wild, Natthanon says. “The longer she stays with humans, the harder it will be for the herd to accept her,” he says. As the habitats elephants depend on continue to change, cases like his shine a light on the harsh realities of life in the wild.

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