Elephant Unlatches Gate
To Save
Antelopes
4-12-3
- EMPANGENI, South Africa
(AFP) - The matriarch of a herd of elephants in South Africa opened a
gate with her trunk to free antelopes being held at a camp in the east
of the country.
-
- Lawrence Anthony told the SAPA news agency Tuesday
that a private game capture company had rounded up the antelopes at
their camp near Empangeni to relocate them for a breeding
programme.
-
- The team were settling in for the night when the herd
of 11 elephants approached, he said.
-
- "The herd circled the enclosure while the capture team
watched warily, thinking the herd were after lucerne (alfalfa) being
used to feed the antelope," he said.
-
- The herd's matriarch, named Nana, approached the
enclosure gates and began tampering with the metal latches holding the
gates closed.
-
- She carefully undid all the latches with her trunk,
swung the gate open and stood back with her herd.
-
- "At this stage the onlookers realised this was not a
mission for free food, but actually a rescue," Anthony said.
-
- The herd watched the antelope leave the camp before
they walked off into the night.
-
- Ecologist Brendon Whittington-Jones said: "Elephant
are naturally inquisitive -- but this behaviour is certainly most
unusual and cannot be explained in scientific terms".
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