Tourist slammed for giving beer to elephant in viral video

A Spanish tourist’s strange act in Kenya recently sparked backlash as he posted a video on Instagram pouring a drink down an elephant’s trunk.

According to the BBC, the footage was verified to be real and the man was pouring a can of Tuscar, a popular local beer, down the trunk of an elephant.

He captioned, “Just a tusker with a tusked friend,” the backlash from Kenyans in the comment section forced the tourist to delete his video, however, it raised various wildlife safety and security concerns.

The Ol Jogi Conservancy, wildlife refuge in Kenya, in the central county of Laikipia expressed concerns over the incident, stating, “It was unacceptable, dangerous and against our values.”

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and other agencies are investigating the matter.

One of the staffers under the pseudonym of Frank said, “This should never have happened. We’re a conservation group and we can’t allow this to happen.”

He continued, “I was shocked by the behaviour of our unidentified guest. We don’t even allow locals to go near the elephants.”

According to the KWS, the elephant given the beer is named Bupa, a friendly male, who was rescued from a mass elephant cull in Zimbabwe in 1989.