July 29, 2020 | 1:08pm

A doting mother elephant has been pictured helping her newborn baby back on its feet after it took a nasty tumble during its first few shaky steps.

The new family — a mom and two youngsters — were seen making their way to the river for a drink when the smallest calf plunged down several times at the water’s edge.

Luckily mom was on hand to help, and can be seen carefully lifting her precious offspring back up using her trunk and her feet.

The heartwarming snaps were captured by South African wildlife photographer, Charl Stols.

The 39-year-old, who works as a photo host for Pangolin Photo Safaris, witnessed the cute encounter during a boat ride on the Chobe River in Botswana.

Charl, who watched the elephants interact for around 40 minutes, said: “It was a very special moment. We have lots of elephants in Chobe but that must have been the youngest elephant I’d ever seen.

“To watch the mother gently guiding him and then even seeing the little calf swim was a touching experience.

“I still dream about seeing a mother giving birth someday but that was already pretty close.”

Charl observed and photographed the elephant cow and two youngsters as they came to the river for a drink.

The smaller calf seemed to be only a few hours old, still in pink color and wobbly on its feet.

In all the newborn plunged down several times but after each tumble the mother gently helped it back up using her trunk and feet.

Surprisingly, Charl said they even crossed the river to one of the islands and the little one did manage to swim all the way, only its trunk sticking out of the water.