3 Legged Elephant Gets Prosthetic Leg

Mocha, a three-legged , is walking without limping today after being fitted with a prosthetic leg.

Mocha lost her right front leg three years ago when she stepped on a landmine at the Thai-Myanmar border. The new canvas leg comes courtesy of Thai vets at the Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital in northern Thailand. The vets taking care of her hope to free Mocha soon.

Mocha isn’t the first elephant fitted with a prosthetic. A 44-year-old Thai elephant named Motala was fitted with a sawdust filled canvas foot in 2005 after losing her foot to a landmine in 1999.

“[Motala] didn’t show sign of annoying or anything,” hospital founder Soraida Salwala said. “She has been very cooperative and I think when we put more weight on it, then she could finally stretch out the muscles and the tendons and we hope she will finally put the weight on it.”