"She transferred money to us in June and August totalling 63,000 euros (70,000 dollars) for food and medicine for five elephants that sustained injuries from stepping on landmines," said Soraida Salwala, secretary-general of the foundation Friends of the Asian Elephant.

The money from the Bardot Foundation is helping to pay for the ongoing medical treatment and upkeep of five elephants at the foundation's elephant hospital in the northern Thai province of Lampang.

One of the group is Motala, who gained worldwide attention after stepping on a landmine on the border with Myanmar four years ago.

Thanks to a public appeal then, surgeons saved her life by performing a mammoth three-hour surgery on her right foreleg which had to be partially amputated.

"In our appreciation we have named a six-week old baby elephant BB after her," Soraida said, adding that the former French actress had told the foundation in a letter that elephants were among her favourite animals.

Thailand's elephant herd, which numbered some 150,000 animals 100 years ago, is in peril. Just 2,257 of them remain in the wild and some 150 die each year, according to the Forest Industry Organisation.

TERRA.WIRE