Elephant Holds Up Bus And Sticks Its Trunk Through Window To Thieve A Bunch Of Bananas

Nov 12, 2020 by apost team

Despite their enormous size, elephants are actually known for their gentle and playful demeanor, but their playfulness can be seen as more aggressive than expected when it comes to food.
This is highlighted in a hilarious yet intimidating video captured in Kataragama, Sri Lanka, in 2018, in which an elephant is seen sticking its trunk into a local bus before pulling it out with a bunch of bananas and going on its merry way. It's not the most traditional robbery but a successful one, nonetheless!

The video of the incident was first posted to Twitter by an Indian Forest Service officer named Parveen Kaswan, who captioned the 43-second clip, "Daylight robbery on a highway." The clip quickly spread on the platform, gaining over 17,000 likes and over 3,000 retweets, while once it was posted to YouTube it gained nearly two million views.

In it, someone is recording from inside a local bus, as it approaches an elephant standing in the middle of the road. It is as if the animal is waiting for drivers to pay a local toll fee—only the toll consists of food! Then, without warning, it sticks its trunk in through the driver's window and frantically begins rummaging inside the bus. It clearly caught the driver and the person recording by surprise, as there's a mild panic among them when the elephant begins searching inside the vehicle.

Then, as if he can read the elephant's mind, a passenger grabs a hand of bananas and attempts to pass it under the elephant's trunk so that it will take what it wants and leave. It takes a moment for the elephant to successfully grab the hand of bananas but soon he does and then pulls his trunk out of the window, but not before seemingly squashing the driver as it wrangles its trunk. Meanwhile, the driver of the bus wastes no time in driving away from the scene immediately after.

apost.com

While the clip is funny and sweet in one regard—who doesn't love seeing animals doing unexpectedly hilarious things, all for some food—it's also a warning about feeding wild animals. As the original poster of the video wrote in a second tweet:

"On a serious note this is why you see ‘Do not feed wild animals’ board near forest area. They become habitual of new taste. And keep coming to road & near human. This is not helpful to them in long run."

He goes on to add that possibly this is unrelated to this video, but nonetheless, it does serve as a warning.

Interestingly, this is not the first time an elephant has stopped a vehicle for a snack! Various incidents have been posted online in the last few years which show a similar situation. As the original poster of this video explained, it very well could relate back to human habits of feeding wild animals, causing the animals to believe that they will always be given food if they stop and approach a passing car. 

This ties into the wider issue of humans taking over land for agriculture, thereby pushing elephants into smaller spaces. This loss of their habitat creates even more problems when elephants then eat the crops of local farmers—they eat up to 450kg of food a day! Subsequently, farmers can lose their entire livelihood from having their crops eaten by animals, which has caused tension between humans and wild animals, with some farmers taking extreme measures to protect their land, not all of which are safe for elephants.

Thankfully there are organizations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) that work to reduce this conflict with elephants via humane practices. Some of these include:

"Chilli and tobacco-based deterrents to keep elephants out of fields; changing farming practices–making farms easier to defend; growing crops that elephants don't like; education; and improving oil palm plantation practices in Malaysia and Indonesia."

Other measures include aiding the seasonal movement of elephants and other animals in Nepal's lowland Terai region, allowing the animals to travel without needing to pass through human habitations. Ultimately, humans and wild animals need to co-exist, and the more peacefully they can do that, the better for both.

Did you know that elephants often stop traffic for food? How would you react in such a situation? Tell us in the comments, then be sure to pass this on to those you know to spread the word.