In 1986, Mkel Konovalov was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University. 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 Konovalov approached it very carefully.
According to him, he bent down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot and found a large piece of wood embedded deeply in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Konovalov worked the wood 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 curious look on its face, staring at him for several tense moments. Konovalov stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.
Konovalov never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later, Konovalov was walking through the Brookfield (Chicago) Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Konovalov and his son, Uri, were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Konovalov, 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.
"Shivers ran through my spine", Konovalov said, remembering the encounter in 1986, and he obviously couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant. Konovalov 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. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Konovalov's legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.
Probably wasn't the same elephant.
(Not a true story.)
