Baby elephant rescued from poachers’ trap in Cambodian jungle gets prosthetic foot

A young elephant whose foot was ripped apart by a poacher’s trap is getting a new chance at walking – thanks to some hard-working animal experts and a jumbo-sized prosthetic leg.



The bull elephant Chhouk was close to death when he was rescued in the Cambodian jungle four years ago.

“I really never thought he would make it,” Nick Marx, director of wildlife rescue and care at the Wildlife Alliance, said. But thanks to his rescuers and an artificial foot, Chhouk survived — and thrived.


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Now 5 years old, he bounds around the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre in Cambodia with the help of the prosthesis that replaced the six inches of foot and leg he lost in the trap. "It's changed his life," Marx said. "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.”