From a village attack in India to a circus act gone wrong, here's what happens when elephants
attack.
Today's video was requested by World Travel Pro.
If you have any other topics you'd like to learn about, subscribe & let us know in the
comments section below.
Number 6: Chan Yun Elephants are a popular attraction in Thailand
with more than 2,000 beasts being kept for touristic purposes.
While Australian tourist Chan Yun was visiting the Mai Khao beach he was attacked by a four-year
old elephant.
The beast wandered freely on the beach when it became agitated.
It pushed the 62-year-old man to the ground and trampled him.
Yun was rescued by a taxi driver and taken to Bangkok International Hospital.
The doctors determined that the man had sustained injuries to his kidney and spine as well as
a number of fractured ribs.
He was reportedly transferred to a facility in Sidney, Australia, by air ambulance, where
he needed surgery to recover.
The next attack involves an Irishman trying to enjoy a quiet lunch while on vacation in
Zimbabwe.
But first, let's find out a little more about these massive beasts.
Elephants are the largest land animals in the world and the only surviving family of
the Proboscidea order.
These massive beasts can weigh as much as 15,000 pounds while standing at heights of
almost 13 feet.
They also have a set of unique physical features.
Elephants have pillar-like legs which help them carry their massive weight and allow
them to stand still for extended periods of time without consuming too much energy.
Their skulls are large and very resilient, being able to withstand head-to-head collisions
while protecting the brain from almost every angle.
One of the elephant’s more distinctive features is its long trunk, a fusion of the upper lip
and the nose.
Although it's primarily used for breathing and smell, the trunk also serves other functions
such as grasping objects, lifting water or making sounds.
On each side of the trunk are the elephant’s two long tusks.
The tusks are modified incisors in the upper jaw which never stop growing, increasing in
length by 7 inches per year.
The elephant can use its tusks to dig, clear paths, or as weapons in confrontations.
Just like humans are right-handed or left-handed, the elephant also has a dominant tusk which
it uses more than the other, usually called the master tusk.
The calcified tissue of the tusks is known as ivory, which is considered very valuable
and the main reason why elephants have been the subject of intense poaching throughout
the years.
They are also highly intelligent creatures.
Some scientists believe that elephants are self-aware and that they show empathy for
the dead or dying individuals in their group.
Their memory is also a remarkable characteristic as they are believed to possess cognitive
mapping, which allows them to remember large spaces over long periods of time.
Elephants are also said to remember the mistreatment they endure at the hands of humans in places
such as circuses or certain zoos.
This sometimes causes them to unexpectedly lash out and attack their keepers, trainers
or members of the public.
Number 5: Stephen Montague Northern Ireland man, Stephen Montague was
on vacation in Zimbabwe with his family, when they were attacked by an African Elephant.
The family was having lunch at a restaurant in a Zimbabwe animal complex.
The footage shows a large elephant bull slowly approaching their table.
Upon reaching them the animal began to swing its massive trunk throwing Montague and Shane
Wolf, his brother in-law off their chairs.
Wolf was reportedly also injured by the elephant’s tusk.
Fortunately the men were not seriously injured as the guards from the complex managed to
chase the elephant away by clapping their hands and making loud noises.
Before we move on to the next incident involving an elephant fatally throwing a rock at a young
girl, let's look at where elephants can typically be encountered.
There are currently two main species of elephants, the Asian Elephant and the African Elephant,
which are scattered through areas in South Asia, Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
They are herbivorous and often found near water in various habitats including forests,
marshes, and savannahs.
Female elephants, also known as ‘cows’ usually live in family groups, mainly consisting
of either one female with her offspring, or ‘calves’, or several related females and
their young.
The ‘matriarch’, one of the older cows, is typically the leader of the group.
Elephant males, known as ‘bulls’, are larger than the females and leave the group
after reaching puberty to live alone or among other bulls.
In the wild, these animals can live up to 70 years as the predators with which they
share the environment, such as lions, hyenas (in Africa) or tigers (in Asia) typically
tend to stay away from them.
If predators do attack the group, they usually target the calves.
There are currently around 415,000 African elephants living in the wild.
Even though there is an international ban on ivory trade, it is still active in domestic
markets, which is a great threat for African Elephants.
Asian elephants are considered an endangered species with only 50,000 left in the wild.
Even though most Asian Elephants are tusk-less, their population is affected by the rapid
expansion of human farms and settlements into their environment.
Other elephants can be found in zoos, man-controlled habitats or circuses.
Number 4: The Incident at Jardin Zoologique de Rabat
Although not a typical elephant attack, the incident at Jardin Zoologique de Rabat, in
Morocco serves as a stark reminder of how powerful and unpredictable elephants can be.
A 7-year-old girl, whose name was not released by the press, was fatally injured after an
elephant threw a rock from its enclosure.
Assia, a large female elephant, used its trunk to pick up the rock then launched it in the
air.
At the same time, the child was on her father’s shoulders, outside the elephant’s enclosure,
as her mother was preparing to take a photograph of the two of them.
The large stone hit the girl in the back of her head causing her to fall to the ground,
unconscious.
An ambulance, which reportedly took a long time to arrive, took the child to the local
hospital.
Unfortunately, she failed to recover from her injuries and died shortly after the incident.
Although there were no reported breaches of safety, the zoo was criticized for not having
its own ambulance station.
If riding an elephant is something you've always wanted to try, the next elephant attack
case may make you reconsider.
But first, let's go over how most elephant-induced human deaths actually occur.
In the past elephants were considered to be a phenomenal advantage in warfare.
Their sides were equipped with armor and after their tusks had grown long enough, sharp points
made out of brass or iron were mounted on them.
The training of war elephants included teaching them how to pin people to the ground and impale
them with their tusks, grabbing soldiers and throwing them around and trampling through
the enemy lines.
While documenting the campaigns of Alexander the Great, historian Arrian of Nicomedia wrote
about war elephants, saying, “Whenever the beasts could wheel around, they rushed forth
against the ranks of infantry and demolished the phalanx of the Macedonians, dense as it
was.”
Male elephants enter a period of ‘musth’, which in Hindi means ‘madness’.
During this time their levels of testosterone increase drastically (sometimes even 60 per
cent higher than normal) and their temporal glands secrete a fluid called tamporin.
The fluid runs down the side of the elephant’s face.
Musth can last anywhere from a day to up to four months.
It is a period when bulls are extremely aggressive and most dangerous to humans.
Even without the armor that clad their bodies in the past, elephants are still a force to
be reckoned with.
Their sheer size enables them to trample people to death.
Their trunks have up to 150,000 separate muscle fascicles, which enable them to lifts weights
of over 700 pounds.
The tusks are another dangerous attribute.
Aside from being the target of many poachers, an elephant’s tusks are also very deadly
as they can be used to impale people or throw them around.
Elephants can reach speeds of to 25 mph, despite their massive size.
They also have a keen sense of smell, being able to detect water sources from up to 12
miles away.
Their sense of hearing is also very good, as they can detect low sound frequencies that
human beings can’t.
For long distance communication, elephants are known to use infrasonic sounds, which
are sounds below the human hearing range.
Number 3: Gareth Crowe Gareth Crowe, his partner Catherine Hughes
and their two children were on holiday on the Koh Samui Island in Thailand.
Crowe and his partner’s daughter Eilidh were riding an elephant as part of a trek
around the island’s surroundings.
When the elephant’s handler climbed down to take some photos, the beast became agitated,
angry and unwilling to obey his instructions.
The handler then reportedly tried to reclaim control by hitting the beast several times.
In response, the elephant, known as Golf, stabbed him with one of his tusks.
The beast then rose up throwing Crowe and Eilidh off his back.
As he was lying on the ground, Crowe was impaled by the elephant’s tusk.
He died instantly.
The beast then ran into the forest.
Fortunately, Eilidh was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
The organization World Animal Protection expressed their support for the suffering family but
also warned that elephants are wild animals and are not meant to be ridden.
A spokesperson for the organization issued the following statement “Elephants are cruelly
abused to tame them enough so they give rides and perform shows.
Most tourists don’t know about these abuses, or the potential danger they put themselves
in.
If you can ride it, hug it or have a selfie with a wild animal, then the chances are it
is cruel and the animal is suffering.”
Coming up next is a group of elephants that went on a killing spree in a rural community
in India, although we first want to prepare you with the best techniques to survive an
elephant attack.
There are a few techniques that you can apply in order to survive a charging elephant if
you are on foot without a vehicle nearby.
At first you should establish whether it is a real charge or a mock charge.
When the charge is real an elephant’s ears are pinned back flat, if it is a mock charge
the ears are relaxed or fanned out.
A real charge is commonly preceded by a trumpeting warning.
You are more likely to survive if you stand your ground, facing the elephant than turning
your back away and running.
If you stand still, the elephant might give up the charge, because it will perceive you
as non-threatening, while running would encourage a chase.
If you do choose to run, make sure you use a zig-zag motion pattern as elephants usually
find it difficult to change directions because of their bulky size.
Staying downwind of the elephant, will decrease your chances of being detected, as the beasts
will have a difficulty using their keen sense of smell.
If you can find a place to hide, make sure to be very quiet because elephants have an
acute sense of hearing.
Climbing a tree is another possible method of escaping the encounter.
However, the fact that the elephant might try to take down the tree should also be taken
into consideration.
If the elephant is too close and the charge is imminent, you can try making a lot of noise
and shouting at it.
This should only be attempted in situations of a mock charge.
Shouting at a bull in musth can have fatal consequences.
Number 2: The West Bengal Attacks In March, 2016, a herd of wild elephants wreaked
havoc in India’s rural West Bengal region.
Their attacks claimed the lives of four villagers and injured two others.
Anandamoyee Rai and Narayan Chandra Maji were trampled to death in the fields near the Nashigram
village, after an encounter with the herd.
Siraj Sheikh was killed in a separate attack which left two other villagers with severe
injuries.
Benoy Krishna Burman, West Bengal’s forest minister, said that the victims had been trampled
after throwing stones at the beasts in attempt to drive them back into the forest.
Having heard of the recent elephant rampage, 40-year-old Prakash Boyra went to check on
his land near Baghasole village.
Unfortunately, he came into the way of the herd.
Footage captured by a mobile phone shows one of the massive animals using his trunk to
grab the man and fling him into the air.
Shortly afterwards, the man was trampled and killed.
The elephant bull responsible for Boyra’s death was killed by a tranquilliser dart fired
by forestry authorities who had been called to help.
The other three animals in the herd, two calves and a cow, fled into the forest.
Experts expect human elephant encounters in Asia to increase in the coming years as more
and more elephant territories are taken over by farms and human settlements.
Number 1: Tyke In 1994, Tyke, an 8,000 pound African Elephant
was one of the main attractions performing at the Circus International of Honolulu in
Hawaii.
However, Tyke had always had a rebellious side.
In April 1993, the massive elephant cow escaped through the front doors of the Pennsylvania
Jaffa Shrine Center in Altoona, during a performance.
Tyke caused over 14,000 dollars in damage before she was captured and taken back to
the circus.
On the 23rd of July, 1993, Tyke ran through the North Dakota State Fair for 25 minutes,
injuring a handler and frightening the crowd.
Canadian and USDA law enforcement documents noted the mistreatment of an elephant named
Tyke (possibly the same elephant) during a performance.
“The elephant handler was observed beating the single-tusk African elephant in public
to the point where the elephant was screaming and bending down on three legs to avoid being
hit.
Even when the handler walked by the elephant after this, the elephant screamed and veered
away, demonstrating fear from his presence.”
The report was an indication of how badly elephants in the circus were treated.
During a performance in Hawaii, in 1994, Tyke attacked and trampled her groomer Dallas Beckwith.
When her trainer, Allen Campbell tried to save Beckwith, he was killed.
Tyke then charged out of the arena and started to run amok in the streets.
Local police authorities chased the beast down for an hour and a half.
Police then shot Tyke 86 times before the massive animal’s bloodied body collapsed
to the ground.
Children who had witnessed the event reportedly needed counseling afterwards.
Allen Campbell’s autopsy revealed the presence of cocaine and alcohol in his system.
A lawsuit against the circus, the elephant’s owner, the state of Hawaii and the city of
Honolulu followed the incident.
Tyke became an international symbol for animal rights and the tragic abuse of animals in
circus environments.
Thanks for watching!
Would you rather: be attacked by an elephant, or go into battle unarmed against a fully-equipped
Roman gladiator?
And why?