An injured baby elephant was rescued after being caught in a hunter’s trap was recovering today after bein moved to a new home.

The three-month-old jumbo named ‘Fah Sai,’ which means ‘clear sky’ in Thai, was found by passers-by in Chanthaburi province on November 28. Her right foot had been caught in a trap, and she also bore gunshot wounds on her shoulder.

Wildlife rescuers were alerted to the animal and arrived at the scene to find the jumbo with rope from a wild boar trap cutting into its ankle. The thorny rope was wrapped so tightly that it was ripping into the creature’s skin.

The team also found marks that looked like seven gunshots on the baby elephant’s left front leg – raising fears that a hunter had opened fire. Specialists cut off the noose on the jumbo’s leg and used ropes to hoist it onto dry land. It was then transferred to a pickup truck and taken to a park ranger station where it received medical attention from veterinarians.

Wildlife officials released the elephant the next day and monitored. She has now been taken to the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden in Chonburi province to recover. A foster-mother elephant will then be found to adopt her.

Vet Padet Siridumrong said: ‘We managed to extract a large fragment of a bullet, followed by two smaller pieces.’

Unfortunately, several bullet pieces are still lodged in Fahsai’s flesh. She will be receiving daily medical treatments until she regains enough strength to undergo more surgery to extract remaining bullet fragments.

Meanwhile, authorities have been giving her milk from mother elephants at the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden. A search for a foster-mother elephant to adopt Fahsai is also ongoing.

Virut Kadkeaw, one of the wildlife rangers who first found the injured elephant, said: ‘Villagers have been instructed to stay clear of the area as the mother elephant could be walking around and may become violent if it gets overprotective.’

Thailand has an estimated 2,000 Asian elephants living in the wild but there is often conflict when they come into contact with humans on roads and in villages. A similar number of elephants are kept captive where they work in zoos and are hired out for religious festivals and weddings.