Schoolgirl lies injured after elephant hurls rock at her0:39
WARNING GRAPHIC: Schoolgirl lies injured at a zoo after being struck on the head in a freak accident by a rock hurled at her by an elephant.
Zoo blames ‘abnormal’ elephant for death of seven-year-old girl
EXPERTS at a zoo in the Moroccan capital of Rabat are trying to understand why an elephant hurled a stone in the air near visitors, killing a seven-year-old girl.
The behaviour of the female elephant was “abnormal” and needs to be understood, a veterinarian at the zoo said on Friday.
The girl was visiting the Zoological Garden of Rabat with her family on Tuesday, admiring three elephants when one picked up a stone, then tossed it more than 10 meters (yards) over a huge ditch and a wooden barrier toward the visitors.
The girl was struck in the head and died hours later.
The elephant exhibit has been temporarily closed, zoo veterinarian Abderahim Salhi said by telephone.
He said that zoo personnel remained in shock three days later at what he called an “unforeseeable accident.”
Mr Salhi said that “the behaviour of any animal is very complex and wild animals are unpredictable.”
“We are all surprised. We don’t yet understand,” Salhi said. The zoo, which opened in 2012 on the edge of Rabat, was designed to show animals living in replicas of their natural habitat — but with no direct contact with visitors, Salhi said. Stones are plentiful inside the elephant habitat, as they would be in their natural surroundings.
“We are very sad at what happened, but it would be wrong to blame the elephant. This was not premeditated,” said Salma Slimani, in charge of zoo administration.
Originally published as Zoo blames ‘abnormal’ elephant for death