Elephant amputee gets permanent prosthetic leg

Motala walks on her new leg over the weekend.

(Credit: Friends of the Asian Elephant)

One of the best things about this job is getting to share stories that are often totally friggin' awesome. This is one of those stories.

It doesn't start happily, though. Motala is a 48-year old former working elephant from Thailand (she moved large trees for a living). In 1999, while wandering in the forest looking for food on her lunch break, she accidentally stepped on a land mine left over from the Burmese-Thai war. The mine destroyed her left front foot and most of the leg.

Though her owners tried to save the leg, it was eventually amputated below the knee. In 2006, she got a temporary prothesis to help her learn to walk on what would be a more permanent artificial leg.

This week, Motala was fitted for that leg in Thailand, according to the conservation group Friends of the Asian Elephant. It's a state-of-the-art upgrade to the temporary prothesis she's had for the last three years. Early reports show she's taking to it well, which is fantastic (watch the video after the jump). Here's hoping Motala lives a normal, long life in her retirement.

[JDawg1983]

Awesome :)

[SprSynJn]

It is stories like this that bestow a sense of hope in humankind.

[SlanderPanic]

+1 faith in humanity.
Thank you for this story, Matt!

[mb00]

awww...this really thaws my cold little heart. Human stories I usually shrug off, but animal stories always get me.

[jsslanga]

Am I the only one that think they should put the poor thing down instead of torturing it like that? That`s nothing but mankinds egotrip, saying, "look what we can do (without actually considering if the animal would be better off dead)! [CNET editors' note: URLs deleted.]

[trewbux]

"The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive" -Full Metal Jacket

[propellerdiver]

Elephants are not dumb animals- they are intelligent beings with dignity and individual personal value. We don't put elephants down with such injuries, any more than we put down people who need prostheses. I can see your thinking, because perhaps you think elephants are like horses- but they are not. Horses are essentially useful food and draft animals like cows. they make nice pets, too. Elephants are people. They don't make good pets- they make good friends.

[SprSynJn]

propellerdiver, you were on a roll until that horse malarkey. Calling one animal smart while calling the other dumb is like saying Americans are stupid but Japanese are intelligent. Your logic, as some would call it, is flawed.

[Tedders85]

Wow @jsslanga... What the hell are you talking about you spammer...get offa here!

I think this is amazing and I wish the elephant many years of happiness.

[dlowe402]

Tedders85, don't you think jsslanga is as entitled to their opinion as you are? I see where you are coming from jsslanga, but the time to euthanize the animal would have been 10 years ago when it was in severe pain and suffering. The elephant appears to be coping quite well now. She looks to be well cared for and very calm. Animals that are suffering don't remain that calm and cooperative, This is a great way to progress the technology of prosthetics and make them work well in different situations. I think this is a cool story but I do see jsslanga's point as well.

[Imcooltrustme]

No way dlowe402. There is no agreeing on the internet. Haven't you learned that "Your opinion sucks and I'm omniscient?"

In all seriousness, I agree with you. The elephant looks (to the best of my limited knowledge of elephants) to be happy and, like you said, cooperative.

[Dr_Zinj]

I think jsslanga is operating on the obsolete assumption that elephants are just dumb animals.

Elephants are among the few animals that are self-aware (great apes, bottlenose dolphins and magpies). They are also one of the rare understanders of semantics and syntax in human communication. They are simple (but not primitive) tool users. They have complex societies. They show a large capacity for altruism (some might claim they are more humane than humans). They are also the only non-human species that has death rituals.

Overall, elephants may be equivalent in intelligence to chimps, gorillas, and organutans; which would qualify them as a sentient species.

More to the point of the article, since elephants are intelligent tool users, I would have designed the prostheses so that Motala could put it on and take it off herself.

[propellerdiver]

Fight landmines whenever, wherever you can. This brave elephant joins tens of thousands of crippled people and animals all over the world, maimed from the barbaric use of these cruel weapons. This was the principal charity of Princess Diana, and the cause has suffered since her passing. Please help?

[krosafcheg]

Just a quick question.

Is the prosthetic the bag fitted to her leg, or the framework in the picture?
The video suggests that the bag thing packed with shavings is the final thing, but the picture caption claims that the framework is her new leg. Is the framework inside the bag, with the shavings? Or is that just a mistake?