Sweetheart
Sweet by name, sweet by nature - Sweetheart is just three years old and has us all wrapped around her little trunk!
Baby Sweetheart (Wan Jai), was just three years old when we were notified about her sad situation.
Sweetheart’s mother was a logging elephant, way up in the hills of Northern Thailand. One day, whilst her mother was pulling down trees and dragging heavy piles of logs, Sweetheart, who was tied to her mother’s side by the neck, suffered a life threatening accident - a large tree fell on top of her and she was trapped. Being stuck under the tree for several hours was extremely traumatic for Baby Sweetheart and almost ended with her losing her life.
Because of this near death experience, Sweetheart was left with permanent weakness in both of her back legs. Shortly after that, Sweetheart’s mother died suddenly, leaving her tiny two year old baby girl, an orphan.
The owners didn’t know what to do with such a young elephant. There were no other elephants in that region and Sweetheart was clearly lonely and depressed.
When we heard about Sweetheart’s heartbreaking situation, we wasted no time in driving up into the mountains to find her. We loaded the car up with sweet, ripe bananas and braced ourselves.
Sweetheart was so small. Having lost her mother at such a young age had obviously stunted her growth. She was nervous, scared and we knew instantly that BLES could give this little girl everything she needed - a family.
BLES partnered together with The Elephant Initiative - a 5o1c3 based in Texas, to launch an emergency fundraiser to save Sweetheart. The funds were raised in record breaking time - just 23 hours!
When the day came to collect Sweetheart, we were all excited and nervous. She had never travelled on a truck before and so we had no way of predicting how she would react. Thankfully, Sweerheart seemed to understand that we were there to help her. She walked calmly on to the truck and remained still as The BLES Team quickly worked to adjust the support frame around her.
During the eight hour drive home to BLES, Sweetheart ate contiously, emptied the water tank three times and even let out a few hearty roars of excitement!
Since Sweetheart’s arrival on the 6th December 2025, she has blossomed into a true baby elephant. She has been adopted by our two BLES matriarchs - Pang Suai and Pang Noi, who keep Sweetheart constantly sandwiched in-between them!
It is the most unbelievable sight to see these three beautiful females all together and to know that Baby Sweetheart went from having no mother, to now having two.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, to each and every person who united with us to save Sweetheart.
Adopt Sweetheart
