An Elephant Isn’t A Puppy

About 17 years ago in Tanzania, a crazed Floridian tourist almost got my daughter Nicki killed. This woman (call her Harriet) was in our group of about ten Americans traveling around in our covered bus from Ngorongoro Crater to Oldevai Gorge. She was always taking chances, and talking about how when our safari was over, she was going to other places, traveling largely alone, feeling perfectly safe. I wasn’t certain whether she was courageous or silly and entitled.

Then, on the very last day of our tour, we were camped on the lip of Ngorongoro, and an elephant came to sniff around the camp. Our guides warned us not to tease or in any way antagonize the creature. If you’ve never been around a wild elephant, trust me…it is NOT like watching one in a circus, or watching “Dumbo” or throwing peanuts at them in a zoo. You suddenly understand very clearly that this is something operating on a totally different scale of existence from ANYTHING you have in your American environment. A living truck, perhaps. Something intelligent, and curious, but capable of crushing you the way you’d crush a peanut shell.

We were packing up the camp quietly as the elephant sort of moseyed around the outskirts. Most of us pretended not to see it (except for snapping a few pictures). Except for Harriet, who approached it. Talked to it. Teased it. The elephant watched her closely, and she laughed as if it was a puppy or something, and kept getting closer. The elephant curled its trunk and focused on her. The guides, and sure as heck the rest of us tourists, started…