In 1986, Dan Harrison
( sorry, couldn't format picture ) 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 Dan 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, Dan 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.
Dan stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled.
Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.
Dan
never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years
later, Dan 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 Dan and his little son Dan Jr. were standing.
The
large bull elephant stared at Dan, lifted its front foot off the ground, and
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, Dan
couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant.
Dan 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 Dan's legs, picked him up gored
him with his tusk and slammed him against the railing,leaving him in a bloody
mess in front of his son and killing him instantly.
Probably wasn't
the same
elephant.