by Huge Elephant Gets Stuck In A Muddy Pit While Taking A Drink And Has To Be Hauled Out By Villagers
An elephant was freed from a mud pit after it fell in while trying to take drink as the slippery edge gave way under its weight.
Shivasankaran the tusker elephant was taken to have a bath in a rainwater tank in the town of Pathanamthitta in southern India. The huge mammal saw a muddy pit nearby and went to drink water from it, but was too heavy for the soft ground around it.The elephant struggled frantically to make a way out for itself but slipped back repeatedly due to its heavy weight.
Appu the dog which accompanied the beast kept barking until the mahout who looked after him came to help.Villagers arrived with an excavator to dig Shivasankaran out but the machinery also got bogged in the muddy ground, making it useless.
They eventually got a bigger excavator that could be positioned on firmer ground and finally freed the stric.ken elephant un.i.n.j.ured. Dozens of villagers grabbed ropes they tied around the elephant in an effort to haul him out of the pit while hundreds of others watched on.
Appu never left his big companion’s side as the rescue was underway, prompting villages to call Shivasankaran a ‘big guy with a little friend’.
General Elephant Facts: These animals certainly are huge and impressive beasts. In fact, the elephant is the largest living land mammal in the world.
A male elephant can grow up to 4 metres in height and weigh up to 7 tonnes; whilst their females counterparts can still weigh in at a mere 3.5 tonnes.
To feed an animal of such gigantic proportions takes a lot of food. Their daily food intake is almost as much as 4-7% of their body weight. When you are an elephant, that equates to finding and eating an awful lot of food. As you would expect, all that food needs to be digested and dozed off, which is why our elephant friends can deposit upwards of 150 kg of dung daily! Eew!
Elephants are herbivores and only eat grasses, herbs, fruit, plants and trees. Their healthy, vegetarian diet is obviously good for them as the average elephant has a life span of around 70 odd years, a bit like we do. Despite their size, they are actually pretty nimble and can walk up to 195 km per day, although they usually only average is only 25 km on a daily basis. They can also run faster than you would expect, easily reaching speeds of 40 mph, which is a lot faster than us humans can run.
