Elephant at Chinese zoo filmed returning shoe to child

An adorable elephant in Shandong province of eastern China was caught on video returning a little boy’s shoe after it fell into his enclosure at a zoo.

The video, uploaded to Twitter on Wednesday by Now This, shows the elephant grabbing the tiny shoe with his tusk and carefully reaching up to the boy as the child grabs his shoe back.

This elephant was up to the... tusk 🐘 The animal returned a child’s shoe after it fell into its zoo enclosure in eastern China pic.twitter.com/MZb0qJpo3B

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) August 17, 2022

Twitter users praised the elephant for the kind gesture.

“Elephants are the most loyal protective matriarchal animals that exist,” one user wrote.

“How beautiful that it reciprocates the gesture of the child,” another user commented.

Some Twitter users, however, suggested that the elephant appeared “sad.”

“It doesn’t belong in a zoo. Its eyes also look sad,” one user commented.

“That's also obviously a routine, human throws something in and hands elephant some grass when it is returned. That small barren enclosure with shreds of grass on the floor. Nothing about this is lovely. So sad for that wonderful animal,” another user commented.

The video has garnered over 2.5 million videos and 14,200 likes since being uploaded.