10 Times Desperate Animals Asked People for Help… and Got It

As people continue to learn more about nature, it is becoming obvious that animals have many of the same communication skills as humans, outside of human language. And animals have a way of letting us know when they want us around or not.

Then again, sometimes, even large wild animals just need a little extra help. Sometimes more than a little. Animals have even gone out of their way to ask for help under the direst of circumstances and even for basic necessities of life.

Here are ten stories of animals asking for help from us, their human counterparts, in times of great need.

Related: 10 Absurd Times That Animals Have Run Amok

10 Momma Elephant Finds Rescuers to Help Her Baby

Elephants are renowned for their sentience and intuition, particularly females. The matriarch of a herd is nearly always the most experienced with the longest memory and ability to lead others to the best watering holes and grazing lands. Minus human threats and intervention, elephants tend to be among the most independent of animals, generally surviving and thriving on their own wits and willpower.

It takes an almost human temperament for an elephant to know when to ask for help. But that is exactly what a panic-stricken mother Indian elephant did when her calf fell into a man-made watering hole. The mother elephant came to a road and clearly made overtures for assistance, and refused to take no for an answer, despite some initial human misunderstanding. It took some convincing, but she was eventually able to lead a group of people to help her calf, which was rescued.^[1]

9 Orca Pup Goes for Human Help to Save Mom

Unsurprisingly, the ocean’s apex predator, the killer whale, has a legendary sentience that matches elephants and even other whales. They also show surprisingly perceptive sensitivity which some experts say exceeds even that of us humans. Like elephants, orcas have a powerful sense of independence, even extending to the youngsters in those pods of orca families. It is that sense of independence that gave a baby killer whale the gumption to request aid for his mother orca.

When a killer whale mother had entangled her tail in a fishing net, the calf began making distress calls to some people in a boat, who realized there was a problem. The intelligent young killer whale then led the rescuers to the orca mother. After they helped free the mother killer whale, both the mother and calf made the orca version of “hip-hip-hooray!”^[2]

8 Hyena Man Hero

Hyenas might get a bad rap. Bitter enemies of lions and nowhere near as beautiful as the big, maned felines, hyenas are traditionally viewed as the bad guys of the African savannah. And that maniacal laugh does not help either. Still, like all creatures on Earth, hyenas are simply trying to eke out an existence. Most people do not get that. Some people do.

One such person is Abbas Yusuf of the walled Ethiopian city of Harar, who once adopted and cared for a hyena who had nearly been clubbed to death. Yusuf is a real hyena whisperer. He and his family are famous for interacting with hyenas the way most people act with their dogs and cats, even feeding them raw meat. It is not just Yusuf and his family on solid terms with hyenas. The people of Harar leave bones and other unusable remains in the streets for hyenas to pick up and eat every night. In return, hyenas come and go within the city without bothering anyone.

Legend has it that centuries ago, the city had a problem with hyena attacks, so they made holes in the city walls and threw food out to the hyenas. Eventually, the hyenas came to be less aggressive. Yusuf himself began by leaving out food so hyenas would not attack his livestock.^[3]

7 We’re in the Honey! Birds Lead People to Beehives

Sometimes the early bird catches the beeswax. In Hazda, Tanzania, a small bird called the greater honeyguide is notable for its preference for bee larvae and beeswax. Because of how strong bees make their homes, it is difficult for these birds to access all that good sustenance (not to mention the army of bees protecting a hive.) So, the honeyguide needs a little assistance. And who does it go to for help, but the local people of the region.

When a honeyguide finds a beehive, it whistles at a willing person to follow it to a beehive. The human honey hunters then break open the beehive, harvesting the honey, while the honeyguide reaps a larvae and beeswax bonanza. Honeyguides become so familiar with humans that they fly into a camp, whistling for someone to follow them. If it is still too early, the human honey hunters will ask the honeyguide to wait. Wake up, sleepy heads!

Honeyguides have also learned to recognize the specific human whistle call of the locals so much that when a different whistle signal was played for them—a whistle used by people in Mozambique who also partner with honeyguides for the same purpose in that region—the honeyguides from Tanzania didn’t respond. They had eyes only for their local honey partners.^[4]

6 Deer Me! Wildlife Troopers Help Out a Couple of Bucks

An interestingly common sight in the ocean waters around Alaska and Canada is deer swimming from island to island in search of food. And sometimes those deer do not pay as close attention to the daily tide reports as they should.

Two deer were swimming along Clarence Strait in the northwest waters near Ketchikan in Alaska when they got in trouble. A strong tide was sweeping them away from any island in the area and in the cold Alaska sea waters, the deer began to struggle. That is when Sergeant Mark Finses and Trooper Kyle Feuge happened along in their 33-foot (10-meter) patrol boat to save the day.

Seeing the two troopers, the deer immediately swam toward their boat, where the officers helped pull them into the boat, carrying them to shore and waiting patiently until the deer were warm and strong enough to run into the forest on their own, all safe and sound. Great job, officers. Your service is appreciated.^[5]

5 Dolphin Asks for Dental Aid

Not surprisingly, our smaller ocean-traveling friends are not shy about asking for a little bit of help when they get something stuck in their teeth. When Keller Laros, a diving instructor on the Kona Coast of Hawaii, was in the water with a group of divers, he was approached by a bottlenose dolphin swimming awkwardly. At first, Laros followed the time-tested mantra of not getting involved with wildlife in the ocean, as that can often lead to tragedy. But on this occasion, it became obvious that the dolphin was requesting aid.

Laros eventually realized the dolphin had a fishhook in its mouth with fishing line wrapped around the dolphin that made it difficult to swim. Laros then went right to work. There was a lot of fishing line, and the dolphin had to surface at least once to get some air, but eventually, Laros removed the hook and cut enough line away that the dolphin could go on its way, but not before it came back from a second breath of air to face the diver in an apparent gesture of thanks.^[6]

4 Siberian Tiger on Its Death Bed

There is not always a happy ending, but not because of lack of effort. An emaciated Siberian tiger once crawled out of the winter wilderness and laid herself down at the door of a man in a village near Vladivostok in Russia. When the man tried to open his door, the tiger growled. The man called the authorities, who sent local wildlife professionals to pick up the tiger. They carried her to a rehabilitation facility, where she seemed to improve over a few days, eating and even playing in her cage. Unfortunately, a few days later, other severe physical ailments caught up to her and she passed away.

It was certainly a sad outcome for this member of a severely endangered species, but one immensely positive thing we can take from this is that we humans are making a clear shift in our view and approach to co-existing with wildlife. Thirty or forty years ago, this tiger would likely have been euthanized immediately. Instead, people responded with compassion and kindness, trying first to save it, then providing food and warmth before it breathed its last breath.^[7]

3 Can Someone Give a Kangaroo a Hand?

Who could say no to such a precious face? A long-held tenet in animal science and behavior was that only domesticated animals tend to develop the means to communicate with humans. Then came Australia’s trademark indigenous marsupial, the kangaroo, to rewrite the laws of nature.

An experiment was done with several species of wild kangaroos held in captivity. Food was placed in a closed box which the kangaroos could not open. With a human nearby, the kangaroos tried to open the box, then, like a dog or cat might do, the kangaroos turned their gaze to the human and back at the box, clearly indicating the need for help.

Some kangaroos even approached the human, scratching their knees with a paw. Just like our two little rescue dogs when I have just sat down to read a book, they simply must have a treat at that exact moment.^[8]

2 All Koala Bear Wants Is a Drink of Water

You have to give it to any creature, big or small, that can survive the brutal heat and dry weather conditions of Australia. Even during times of severe drought, these animals persevere beyond what seems possible. Yet, the many members of Australia’s animal kingdom insist on finding ways to endure.

During the heatwave and major bushfires that drove many Australian animals out of their natural habitats, some cyclists came across a poor little koala sitting in the middle of a busy road, clearly in distress. The cyclists stopped to try and relocate him off the road, but the koala ran up to the cyclists, who realized it was dehydrated and desperately wanted some water.

Koalas also approached firefighters for water and safety during the worst of Australia’s wildfires, and wildlife preservation groups struggled valiantly to save as many of these tiny creatures as possible.^[9]

1 Amber the Sea Lion Meets Mr. Right

Sometimes a day out for a leisurely float on the boat turns into an animal rescue. That is what happened to a group who were on the waters of Laguna Beach in Southern California when they saw a sea lion pup who seemed to be having problems getting along in the water.

The sea lion pup was laboring to swim and barely keeping her head above water when she saw the boat and immediately made a beeline toward it. When she reached the boat, she tried to climb up the ladder, but she kept slipping back in the water. Lucky for her, she had met the right guy at the right time.

Hugo Zusho, a photographer, was one of the people on the boat and he leaped into the water and helped the exhausted sea lion get into the boat. They found that she seemed to have been wounded by something—maybe a shark, maybe a boat propeller—and she was immediately transported to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, where she was nursed back to health and released into the wild.^[10]