In 1986, Peter Davies 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 Peter approached it very carefully..
He got down on one knee, inspected the elephants foot, and found a large
piece of wood deeply embedded in it.
As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with
his 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.
Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled.
Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.
Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Lincoln Park
Zoo with his teenaged son.
As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned
and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing.
The large bull elephant stared at Peter, 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, Peter could not help wondering if
this was the same elephant.
Peter 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 Peter legs
and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.
Probably wasn't the same elephant.
Kenya is in Middle Eastern Africa...Close enough...and the story did not make it to Chicken Soup for the Soul, either.
