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..The bull first chased the hyenas and the vultures away. He then tried to manoeuvre his big tusks under Alexander's head. During one of the attempts, one of Alexander's tusks nearly pierced one of the bull's eyes.
By then game reserve personnel had already removed Alexander's heart and lungs for examination, and the scavengers had also got stuck into the approximately six tons of meat. Andjelkovac relates: "The bull sniffed and touched Alexander all over with its trunk. When it could not lift Alexander, it went and sat down on top of him. It even urinated on him.
"I cried so much. It's the first time I've ever seen something like this. I can't get it out of my mind. A guy in a car next to me and my sister-in-law asked us with much concern whether we were okay, we were crying so much."
After trying for about half an hour to get Alexander up, the elephant bull suddenly left. It later appeared that he had just gone to have a drink of water, as he was back again a little while later.
Another fifteen minutes later, he seemed to realise that his old pal would not be able to get up again. He then placed his trunk over the spine of the carcass and stood dead still for about a minute before disappearing into the trees. That evening in the camp, some of the women said they had not seen such passionate love for a friend in a long time. They said that everyone - men, women and children - "bawled their eyes out". |
