Most of us seem to forget that animals are thinking, feeling beings. Sometimes, we even take their existence for granted.
Many of us don’t realize that animals aren’t really that much different from us. People tend to overlook that animals are smart, caring, and loving. Many would even be surprised that animals have the raw, basic qualities that humans have.
And that’s the thing! Animals aren’t that different from us: We all have our own personalities and our own minds. Most of us just could not make the connection because they look so different from us, preventing us from understanding them. Maybe we have to look harder and see for ourselves that animals may be even more human-like than we realize.
Here are six events wherein animals showed kindness and bravery,
proving to be more than what we know them to be.
Leave no one behind
When a wildfire erupted in California, thousands of people tried to run away from it; so, they were dumbfounded when a brave horse ran back towards the danger zone just after being rescued from it, as reported by Miss Cellania in a 2008 article for Neatorama.
Apparently, the horse decided to go back to help the other horses still trapped in a burning barn. All of this was caught on video showing that
the horse reunited with two others presumed to be family. The horse showed everyone that they, too, cared for their loved ones, and that nothing
would stop them from saving those whom they loved.
Lifeguard on duty
According to a 2010 article written by Fanie van Rooyen for News24.com, a man named Tom Yule and a tour group were watching the migration of
wildebeests and zebras across the Mara River. Tom said that the Mara River was one of the biggest challenges during the animals’ migration as the water flow became very strong due to heavy rains.
A young wildebeest was caught in the current. Soon after witnessing this incident, the group saw a hippo rush down to rescue the wildebeest and bring it back to the herd. Not five minutes later, a zebra foal was also caught in the raging river. Realizing that the zebra was in danger, the hippo came to the the rescue, too. Everyone watching was so amazed by the hippo’s heroic acts.
Pouch potato
In Australia, a four-month-old kangaroo remained in his mother’s pouch after she was killed in a car accident, as reported in a 2019 Buzzfeed article by Daniella Emanuel. Luckily, a woman was walking her dog Rex and found the mother’s lifeless body. She shared that Rex started drawing attention to the dead kangaroo.
Worrying that Rex had found a venomous snake, his human tried to call him back away from danger. However, she was surprised to see that Rex took the baby kangaroo out of the pouch, sensing that it was still alive. The woman said that had Rex not found the baby kangaroo, the joey would have
died with his mom.
Getting comfortable enough with Rex, the baby kangaroo snuggled up to him and was later named Rex Junior. Jerrahlinga Wildlife Sanctuary
took care of Rex, Jr. and released him back to the wild at 18 months of age.
We got your back
A young elephant calf was stuck in a mud ditch and was having a very hard time getting out, as shown in a 2018 YouTube video by Caters Clips. Realizing that the little one couldn’t get out on its own, the whole herd tried to use their trunks to help the calf out. The situation was solved with the
herds’ sharp minds and strong trunks, as they pushed and pulled the young calf to safety.
These elephants showed that they cared for each other, and that they would face challenges together. Elephants are considered to be the strongest animals on land, but it seems that their love for each other may be even stronger.
Out of the sea
BBC News reported in a 2008 article that two pygmy sperm whales were beached in New Zealand. People around the beach tried their best to push
these whales back to the sea, to no avail. Whenever they tried to push them back in the water, the whales would get beached again. Apparently, whales could not carry their own weight out of water and found it difficult to maneuver their bodies in shallow waters.
Everyone was close to giving up as both people and whales were already very tired. Then, something amazing happened: A locally famous dolphin named Moko was able to communicate with these whales to lead them back to the open seas.
Conservation officer Malcom Smith said that the attitude of the whales changed when the dolphin came, as if they were really able to understand
each other despite belonging to different species.
Ain’t no monkey business
In a 2014 article for Independent, Emma Finamore reported a situation in India where a monkey saved his friend from the railway. All caught in video, a monkey was electrocuted on a railway as it walked on high tension wires in Kanpur. Due to shock, the monkey lost consciousness and fell on the railway tracks.
Even without first aid training, another monkey picked him up from under the tracks, and attempted to resuscitate him by repeatedly biting, hitting,
and dunking him in water. Successfully, the monkey was able to revive his friend and get him back on his feet.
The commuters could see that the revived monkey was still groggy from the incident, but they were hopeful that he would get better overtime.
This appeared in Animal Scene magazine’s July-August 2020 issue.
You might want to read:
– Saving animals, serious business: How to rescue an animal in need
– Illegal to rescue abused animals? This city doesn’t think it should be
– Army vet finds peace fostering shelter animals, finds them new homes
