A heartwarming story of an elephant playing big brother to an orphaned calf is currently viral on social media.

Pare, an elephant, was less than 1 year old when he arrived at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya in the year 2016.

A suspected victim of poaching, Pare arrived in very bad shape, with having parasites and arriving in an emaciated state.

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which is an orphan elephant rescue and wildlife rehabilitation program, took Pare in and helped him grow.

Along the way, Zurura, a 10 year older elephant, began to play the big brother role to the smaller guy.

After sharing a picture of Zurura and Pare on Twitter, the organization shared the entire detailed story of the adoptive siblings on Facebook.

In the post, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust said:

It took a long time for his condition to improve, however, thanks to his strong will to live and the round-the-clock specialist care he received from his Keepers, he regained his health and, in December 2018, he graduated to our Ithumba Reintegration Unit, following in the footsteps of many rescued orphans that went before him, including Zurura.

The Ithumba Reintegration Unit is situated close to the Tsavo East National Park in Kenya.

The place is home to orphaned or older elephants that are aged over 3 years old.

When Pare arrived at the Ithumba Reintegration Unit, Zurura was already back in the wild, however, he kept coming back to spend time with other orphaned elephants.

These unexpected visits thrilled Pare, who just found a big brother.

The Trust said:

Zurura clearly loves the chance to play a ‘big brother’ role to Pare and all of the Ithumba herd too.

An adorable image was also shared by the Trust, which showed the elephants together with Pare looking up adorably to his big brother.

The post that they made on Facebook has over 1000 shares and over 12,000 likes or reactions.

What do you think about the adorable story of Pare and Zurura? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below!