By most accounts, Elephants are widely considered among the smartest animals in all of the world. Scientists have also determined that they have the best memory out of every land animal on the planet. So, when a wild Elephant went rouge and strayed several miles away from the Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary in the country of India, people in the region were shocked when they learned that it eventually made its way to the Odisha's Mayurbhanj district before killing a 70-old woman (named Maya Murmu) while she was attempting to fetch water. But what was even more puzzling is that after the victim had been laid to rest, the very same elephant returned to her burial site just so that it could dig up her corpse, trample on it and throw it away before scampering off into the wild.
When news of this uncanny incident reached the founder of the Save The Asian Elephants organization, he shared his thoughts while also attempting to remind the public of the fact that animals in the wildlife are dangerously unpredictable.
"These endangered elephants can be deadly dangerous, particularly when provoked or abused," said Duncan McNair. "[This incident] is surprising because it shows no provocation of the elephant...It's just possible that if [the elephant] was in proximity still at the time of the funeral, and that's not clear, it will have recognized the remains. And it may have seen or smelled that and it may have associated that woman with some catastrophe to it or its herd. That is quite possible."
Although elephants have been deemed generally peaceful by most animal experts and wildlife specialists, they reportedly kill around 500 people a year in India.
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Source: Newsweek
