an elephant's memory....

In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from
college. 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 thorn deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he
could, Mbembe worked the thorn 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 stern 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. He later
married, and had a son, Tapu, whom he told the tale of kindness. Twenty
years later he was walking through a zoo with his now teenaged son. As
they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and
walked over to near where Mbembe and his son were standing. The large
bull elephant stared at Mbembe and 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, Tapu and 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. Suddenly
the elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of the man's
legs and swung him wildly back and forth along the railing, killing him.

During the investigation of the incident, a zoo representative heard
Tapu, holding back tears, proclaim, "Probably wasn't the same elephant."