I've seen this. I mean, not this exact case, but I'm like 70% sure I know what happened without even reading the article.

So 20 years ago I was watching tv, and they had this story where a zoo keeper was just ambushed by an elephant, and thrown around by it's trunk. Threw him against a retaining wall, to knock him out, them stomped on him, and kicked him. Then ran around in a frenzy.

Watching it, it's like the elephant snapped and went crazy. There's one key piece of context missing. Ears.

We can't hear everything an elephant can. Their ears are highly sensitive. There can be an elephant 5 miles away calling out in pain, and elephants 5 miles away will charge towards that call for help, killing all predators along the way.

Now, was it a case of another elephant in the zoo calling for help? No actually. It was the zookeeper that was calling out in pain. Or rather his pocket.

His cell phone was creating a high pitched squeel. We can't hear it. The elephants hear it, and it causes their ear drums pain. The elephant basically was reacting to a threat in it's zoo enclosure causing him pain.

My guess is, in this posted story, the safari guide had a cell phone, and it did whatever triggers elephants. And I'm sure I'm the only one reading this story who would have even thought of that. All because I saw a story on TV probably in 2003, that stuck with me.

I always turn my cell phone off, and take out the battery whenever I go to a zoo. I know nobody else does, but my theory is, the elephant won't target ME when it breaks free, since I'm not a source of painful noise. I just gotta outrun the fatties, and the parents with dumb kids.