Elephant in Heat Tramples Employee to Death at Wild Animal Park

A senior manager at Beijing's Badaling Wild Animal Park was trampled to death by an elephant in heat Friday, according to the Beijing News.

The forty-something employee, surnamed Wu, was feeding the elephant when the incident happened. Another employee present was not hurt but is being treated for shock at the hospital.

The elephant enclosure at the park

Reports indicate the manager was filling in for the elephant's regular feeder, who had the day off.

The popular park near the Great Wall is known for its free-roaming animals, and tourists drive through the park in their cars. However, some animals are in fact kept in enclosures, such as the elephants.

The death happened in the elephants' enclosure during what was apparently a routine feeding and cleaning.

The sex of the elephant that caused the death was not given, but male elephants are known for being extremely aggressive while in heat (known as musth in male elephants), when testosterone levels can reach up to 60 times normal.

According to Wikipedia:

"In zoos, bull elephants in musth have killed numerous keepers when a normally friendly animal became uncontrollably enraged; in contrast to normal dominance behavior, bulls in musth will even attack and kill members of their own family, including their own calves. Zoos keeping adult male elephants need extremely strong, purpose-built enclosures to isolate males during their musth."

An image of one of the elephants at the park from a dianping.com user

According to the park's website, the attraction also features circus-like animal shows on weekends and holidays at 11am, and if photos on the site are to be believed, the elephants are part of the act. Mang Ping, founder of the NGO Beijing Zoo Watch, told the Beijinger in 2014 that the performances at the Badaling park were some of the worst examples of animal cruelty she has seen in Beijing.

Mentions of the elephants at the park on reviews posted to dianping.com state that tourists can feed the elephants for RMB 10 and frequently refer to the smelliness the enclosure they are kept in.

Written by Michael Wester