Several investigations were launched after a Spanish man in Kenya posted videos of himself pouring beer down an elephant’s trunk – sparking anger on social media.
He was filmed in a wildlife reservation drinking from a can of Tusker, a popular local beer, before giving the rest of it to the elephant.
“Just a tusker with a tusked friend,” he captioned one clip posted on Instagram, which was later deleted from his account after a backlash from Kenyans in the comments.
The BBC analysed the footage and was able to authenticate it as genuine. The landscape and a well-known bull elephant point to it being filmed at the Ol Jogi Conservancy in the central county of Laikipia.
A member of the staff contacted by the BBC at the privately owned wildlife sanctuary was shocked by the behaviour – and said the videos would be passed on to “the relevant authorities”.
“This should never have happened. We’re a conservation and we can’t allow that to happen,” the staffer, only identified as Frank, said.
“We don’t even allow people to go near the elephants.”
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) was also probing the incident, the agency’s spokesperson Paul Udoto told the BBC.
The man involved does not use his name on his social media accounts, which all have a variation of the phrase Skydive_Kenya.
In another clip shared on Instagram on Tuesday, he is seen feeding two elephants with carrots and then saying: “We are on beer time.”
The Instagram videos attracted hundreds of critical comments – with some calling for the man’s deportation – before the posts were pulled down.
The elephant that was given the beer is big in size, with long tusks – one in particular is distinctive as it is damaged.
From other images and videos posted online, it matches the description of Bupa, a friendly male at Ol Jogi whose photo is often shared by visitors.
Bupa was rescued from a mass elephant cull in Zimbabwe in 1989 and brought to the conservancy when he was eight years old.
Ol Jogi says it is home to about 500 elephants and regards itself one of the pioneers in rehabilitating animal orphans and releasing them back to the wild.
The man featured in the beer videos, who describes himself as an “adrenaline junkie” on TikTok, had posted a video on Monday in which he is seen at the nearby Ol Pejeta Conservancy feeding a rhino with carrots.
“He has also broken our rules because he was not supposed to touch the rhinos because they are not pets,” Thige Njuguna from Ol Pejeta told the BBC.
He confirmed the rhino in the footage was from their nature reserve, adding that Ol Pejeta was not home to elephants.
Dr Winnie Kiiru, a Kenyan biologist and elephant conservationist, termed the tourist’s behaviour “unfortunate” as it had endangered his life and that of the elephant.
“About 95% of elephants in Kenya are wild and it is wrong to have social media posts that give the impression that you can get close to the elephants and feed them,” she told the BBC.
The incident comes barely a week after a group of tourists were filmed blocking migrating wildebeest at Kenya’s Maasai Mara during the annual wildlife migration – one of the world’s greatest wildlife spectacles.
The viral footage showed visitors jumping out of safari vehicles, crowding riverbanks and forcing wildebeests into crocodile-infested waters – sparking outage.
Following the incident, the tourism and wildlife ministry announced stricter rules, directing tour operators to enforce park rules by ensuring visitors remain inside vehicles except in designated areas.
It also pledged to improve signage across the wildlife parks and intensify visitor education on safety rules.
The Maasai Mara wildebeest migration draws thousands of visitors annually and is regarded as one of Kenya’s most prized natural heritage assets.
By BBC News
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