Touching Elephant story

[berto64]

This is so touching


In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from

Northwestern University. On a hike through the bush, he came across a

young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The

elephant seemed distressed, so Mbembe approached it very carefully. He

got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot, and found a

large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as

he could, Mbembe worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which

the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the

man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for

several tense moments.





Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled.

Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.





Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.





Twenty years later, Mbemb was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his

teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the

creatures turned and walked over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu

were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe, lifted its

front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that

several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.



Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn't help wondering if

this was the same elephant. Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over

the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to

the elephant and stared back in wonder.


The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Mbembe's

legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.




Probably wasn't the same elephant

[SouthernMoss]

[JD]