Thai Pachyderms Ambush Food Trucks

[belgareth]

This article was really funny. The idea of a bunch of elephants hijacking food trucks is priceless.





Thai Pachyderms Ambush Food Trucks



Sat Dec 18, 5:56 AM ET Science - AP



By

SUTIN WANNABOVORN, Associated Press Writer



KHAO-ANG RUE-NI,

Thailand - These pachyderms aren't just going after peanuts.

Elephants in a wildlife sanctuary in eastern Thailand are using their oversize bodies as road blocks,

ambushing vehicles transporting sugar cane, tapioca and fruit, the sanctuary's chief says.



The estimated 200 elephants in the Khao-Ang Rue-Ni sanctuary turn desperate — and

wily — in the dry season, when water and food supplies shrink. It's then that the animals stage their heists, Yuo

Senatham said.

Conveniently enough for the elephants, the dry

season is also when hundreds of trucks travel through their lands, laden with newly harvested tapioca and sugar

cane.

According to Yuo, a herd leader usually emerges from the

jungle at dusk to block the road. When a vehicle stops, other elephants move in for the feast.



Signs urging motorists not to feed the elephants don't seem to be doing the trick.



"It's like the drivers are bribing the elephants — otherwise the

elephants won't allow trucks to pass through," Yuo said

The

elephants, who have never hurt a motorist, sound a general retreat when wildlife officials arrive to scare them away

with spotlights.

The sanctuary chief says he can't prevent the

elephants from roaming near the road because the area used to belong to them.

"What we can do is prevent them from getting hurt and hurting people," Yuo said.



The Thai army cut the road through the 270,000-acre sanctuary in the 1980s to help

ferry supplies to insurgents fighting the Cambodian government, Yuo said.

There are some 3,000 wild elephants in Thailand, according to the Forestry Department.

[DrSmellThis]

One time they brought in elder

male elephants to stop marauding adolescent elephants. It worked instantly. I wonder if senior elephants are in the

herd.

[bjf]

One time they

brought in elder male elephants to stop marauding adolescent elephants. It worked instantly. I wonder if senior

elephants are in the herd.

I remember watching a doc on tv about this.