Mae Perm, the most loving and sweetest elephant at Save Elephant Foundation, has passed away. She was the first elephant Lek Chailert, founder of the elephant sanctuary, rescued back in 1992 and since then has been a permanent resident at the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. The Asian elephant had a deep and loving friendship with Joika, a blind elephant. For the past 17 years, the two elephants were inseparable and loved each other tremendously.
After Mae Perm died (she passed away from old age), Chailert made sure Joika had time to say goodbye to her beloved friend.
“We gave to Jokia a long time to be with her great love. She stood over her for almost 6 hours, touching and nudging and leaning against the lifeless body of Mae Perm,” Lek Chailert, founder of Elephant Nature Park, wrote in the video’s description.
They filmed a video of Joika in which she is clearly mourning her friend. Joika makes a low, rumbling noise in her grief.
“Jokia did not eat much during the whole morning, and when she went to get some melons at the other end of her shelter, we took advantage of the moment to pull Mae Perm’s body out of the room and gently down into her final resting place,” Chailert wrote.
“Jokia did come right over as we moved the body, and she touched Mae Perm, moaning painfully as her friend slipped away from her forever. We feel her pain. From today we will do everything we can to help her through this most difficult time, and into the days of healing and new friendships….”
Rest in peace, dear Mae Perm.
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