Operation: Antelope Freedom
An elephant has launched an extraordinary rescue operation, opening a gate with her trunk to free antelopes being held at a camp near Empangeni in the east of South Africa.
Lawrence Anthony told the SAPA news agency that a private game capture company had rounded up the antelope to relocate them for a breeding program.
The team were settling in for the night when a herd of 11 elephant 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," Mr 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".
AFP
0riginal article at http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/08/1049567683578.html
Lawrence Anthony told the SAPA news agency that a private game capture company had rounded up the antelope to relocate them for a breeding program.
The team were settling in for the night when a herd of 11 elephant 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," Mr 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".
AFP
0riginal article at http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/08/1049567683578.html