A man and his young son appeared outside the zoo’s perimeter fence, which is eight feet high with barbed wire on top. They began yelling at a female Asian elephant to turn around and face them. The elephant, busy eating, ignored them. The son began throwing rocks over the fence at her backside to get her to move.
A keeper immediately told the boy to stop throwing rocks and to let the animal eat in peace. The boy did stop, but to the keeper’s amazement, as soon as he walked away, the father began tossing rocks. Before the dumfounded keeper managed to say anything, the elephant casually picked up a palm-sized rock, did a quick 180° turn, and let fly. The rock sailed across the yard, over the fence, and cracked the man right on the head. The keeper heard the resounding crack 40 feet away.
The man let out a startled cry and grabbed his head, ironically oblivious to the fact that he had, in fact, succeeded in making the elephant turn around. The elephant, meanwhile, turned calmly back to her dinner and continued eating as if nothing had happened.