Page 14 - IAV Digital Magazine #626

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Tourist Pouring Beer Down Elephant's Trunk In Kenya Sparks Anger
Wycliffe Muia, BBC News in Nairobi and Peter Mwai, BBC Verify in Nairobi
Several investiga- tions have been launched after a Spanish man in Kenya posted videos of himself pouring beer down an ele- phant's trunk - spark- ing anger on social media.
He was filmed in a wildlife reservation drinking from a can of Tusker, a popular local beer, before giving the rest of it to the elephant.
"Just a tusker with a tusked friend," he captioned one clip posted on Instagram,
which was later deleted from his account after a back- lash from Kenyans in the comments.
The BBC analysed the footage and was able to authenticate it as genuine. The landscape and a well-known bull ele- phant pointed to it being filmed at the Ol Jogi Conservancy in the central county of Laikipia.
Ol Jogi Conservancy has since been in touch to confirm the incident occurred last year at the privately owned wildlife sanc- tuary - saying it was "unacceptable, dan- gerous and com- pletely against our
values".
Earlier a member of the staff there had told the BBC he was shocked by the behaviour of the yet- to-be identified guest.
"This should never have happened. We're a conservation and we can't allow that to happen," the staffer, only identified as Frank, said.
"We don't even allow people to go near the elephants."
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) was also investigating the matter, the agency's spokesperson Paul Udoto told the BBC.
The man involved does not use his name on his social media accounts, which all have a vari- ation of the phrase Skydive_Kenya.
In another clip shared on Instagram on Tuesday, he is seen feeding two ele- phants with carrots and then saying: "We are on beer time."
The Instagram videos attracted hun- dreds of critical com- ments - with some calling for the man's deportation - before
the posts were pulled down.
The elephant that was given the beer is big in size, with long tusks - one in partic- ular is distinctive as it is damaged.
Ol Jogi Conservancy has confirmed the animal involved is Bupa, a friendly male whose photo is often shared by visitors.
Bupa was rescued from a mass ele- phant cull in Zimbabwe in 1989 and brought to the conservancy when he was eight years old.
"He is cared for closely by our team as an ambassador for conservation," the wildlife sanctuary said in a statement.
It treated cases like that involving the beer stunt "extremely seriously" and remained committed to ensuring the well- being and dignity of the animals in its care, it added.
Ol Jogi is home to about 500 elephants and regards itself one of the pioneers in rehabilitating ani- mal orphans and releasing them back to the wild.
The man featured in the beer videos, who describes himself as an "adrenaline junkie" on TikTok, had posted a video on Monday in which he is seen at the nearby Ol Pejeta Conservancy feeding a rhino with carrots.
"He has also broken our rules because he was not supposed to touch the rhinos because they are not pets," Dylan Habil from Ol Pejeta told the BBC.
He confirmed the rhino in the footage was from their nature reserve but the ele- phant in the beer video did not belong to them.
Dr Winnie Kiiru, a Kenyan biologist and elephant conserva- tionist, termed the tourist's behaviour "unfortunate" as it had endangered his life and that of the elephant.
"About 95% of ele- phants in Kenya are wild and it is wrong to have social media posts that give the impression that you can get close to the elephants and feed them," she told the BBC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc89ESTPR9g
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