A Le, an elephant keeper from Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, gives elephants a shower. [Photo/hz66.com]

An elephant keeper from Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province recently rose to fame online after posting videos depicting how he raises elephants.

Nicknamed "A Le", the elephant keeper has amassed nearly 1 million followers on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

Born in the 1990s, A Le left his hometown of Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture in Yunnan province for Huzhou in May 2019. He has been working as an elephant keeper in the zoo in Taihu Lake Longemont Paradise since then.

Among his posts on Douyin, a 26-second clip showing elephants taking a bath has garnered more than 100 million views and over 2 million likes to date.

The young man attributed the reason behind the rapid rise in his follower numbers partly to the incident involving the migrating wild Asian elephants in Yunnan in June which received worldwide attention.

At Taihu Lake Longemont Paradise, there are a dozen of elephant keepers like A Le, with the majority coming from Yunnan.

He said he is glad to have a relationship with the elephants. A recent livestream hosted by A Le attracted 1.22 million viewers.

"I didn't expect so many people to like elephants," he said, adding that he now feels more motivated to share with more people that elephants are as smart, cute and emotional as humans.