World Blog, NBC News: Wounded elephant walks again, thanks to jumbo-sized false foot
PHNOM TAMAO, Cambodia – “I really thought he would never make it,” said Nick Marx, stroking Chhouk’s trunk with a sense of pride and affection.
“He was seriously injured. He was extremely young, emaciated and very, very sick.”
Chhouk, a bull elephant now 5 years old, was found in the Cambodian jungle in 2007, alone and close to death, his left front foot mangled by a poacher’s trap.
Marx, the Director of Wildlife Rescue and Care at the Wildlife Alliance, a conservation group, was one of the first to the scene, nursing Chhouk in the jungle for a week.
“I stayed with him, slept beside him, hand-fed him everything he ate.
Chhouk was taken to the Cambodian government’s Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center, outside Phnom Penh, and nursed back to health.
“The damage was severe,” Marx says. “He’s lost six to eight inches of his leg.”
A baby elephant gets a new leg: Conservationists didn’t think that Chhouk would survive after having a foot ripped apart by a trap in Cambodia, but thanks to a prosthetic limb, the pachyderm is thriving.
Marx turned to experts at the Cambodian School of Prosthetics and Orthotics, who’d learned their skills during the terrible conflicts (and landmine legacy) that once afflicted this part of Asia. They’d never tried anything on this scale before.
“It’s a kind of plastic resin. The inside is quite soft, and the outside is very hard,” Marx told me, as Chhouk’s keepers removed the artificial foot for its daily cleaning, a procedure that the young elephant has now gotten used to, lifting his leg into a small
compartment for the keepers to work on.Though now his keepers have to exercise more care. Chhouk’s entering the equivalent of jumbo adolescence. He’s getting a bit of attitude. “We’ve certainly got to be more cautious,” said Marx, who can read the elephant’s mood better than anybody.
Then he was into the forest with Lucky, an older elephant that seems to have adopted the youngster. On the narrow path, then playing in a small lake, he seemed comfortable and confident.
“It’s changed his life,” says Marx. “From being a tired little chap who slept a lot when he went on his walks, he’s now lively and energetic. He never stops.”
He’s now on his fourth prosthetic leg, because of heavy wear, but also because Chhouk is growing up fast.
He’s become the best known resident – and a symbol of resilience – at Phnom Tamao, which is maintained by the Wildlife Alliance and supported by the Sea World and Busch Gardens Conservation Fund. The rescue center now houses more than 1,000 animals, ranging from elephants to tigers, gibbons, bears and birds, many of which, like Chhouk, arrived close to death.
“We’ve rescued so many animals from the illegal wildlife trade – an incredibly cruel business. All of them would be dead without us,” says Marx.
Ian Williams/ NBC News
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Aww , sweet
Beautiful story. Such things give me hope that mankind may create smth great, smth right… And I a little bit wonder about posting this article on your site but I like that fact. Thank you for posting it here.
Wow! It's wonderful!
Thats a baby elephant Ohhhh he is crying ;(( Animals can cry like us too !
I wish to see him . <3 Baby elephant , hope he find good friends and be ok and stop crying .
elephants brings happiness
='O)
:') Excellent work!
It breaks my heart each time I see or read human cruelties. What we are able to do? and why? superficiality, most of the time.
So, I enjoy the fantastatic work they did and how they care about the other in this part of the world.
Big up.
An utopian up.
Wow. Thank you for posing this. Such an eye opening story.
This is so beautiful
its wonderful too see such an animal as wise&full of wisdom as an elephant hve such a profound moment!! 
this is made me all teary now!! Bless him!! As we can tell this beautiful animal nvr stopped fighting he must hve knwn tht some day it would be able to walk again!! Awww it's great whn human beings use such positive action to help in such positive ways 
I'm always reading&finding things like these glad to knw u guys find thm too&share the ones u find 
I remember seeing a Natural Geographic special last year about elephants that were injured by landmines in Thailand and were equipped with prostethic legs. I am glad to hear that other nations follow their lead.It is just sad that animals have to suffer the consequences of human stupidity.
rather from greed for money. The poachers hunt elephants for ivory.
I do not understand how can be so cruel and heartless. It's also living beings.
It's just awful.
Thank you for posting such an important story. I can't help but wonder, however, what is it going to take for people around the world to stand up and say ENOUGH! These creatures like all species have souls and feelings. I can't imagine that poor baby elephants terror when it was caught in the poacher's trap. If every person who has access to the internet would stop trolling for a new date, or checking out shopping sites and other trivial web pastimes, maybe, just maybe we could band together and get something done to stop these atrocities. If you are reading this and you want to do something about it, go to change.org and GET INVOLVED. In the meantime, I am ashamed to be a human. Who knows? Maybe I'll see if the elephants will take me in? I bet they would.
There are a few activist or charity group's within the Echelon. @Eco_Echelon tweets about environmental causes outside of what ablorg does. Then there's @AllEchelonHelp & @AllEchelonHelp2 who help raise grains of rice to feed those in need & the group I co-founded with @30STMVOTE called @EchelonDonates. We're raising funds to get trees planted in Haiti.
Within our Echelon family we ARE making a change.
Everyone who is against violence: http://www.facebook.com/notes/seya-ray-steforande…
It's a good story. Elephant incredibly lucky that the defenders animals were near.
Y.
I am glad that there are still people who care about animals.
"Stop, listen to your heart, if you can help – help."
Happy to see such a majestic animal thriving at the hands of human technology instead of being decimated by man.