Mkele & The Elephant

I don't normally pass these feel good stories around but this one is special...

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, Mbembe 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.