This is the moment when an elephant simply had enough of being papped, destroying the hidden camera with a kung-fu kick.
The camera traps are placed to capture wildlife in its natural habitat in Kaziranga National Park, northeastern India, but some subjects were less attractive.
Although the device was made to withstand an elephant’s trampling for an hour, the monster left no chance as it stomped on the camera with its giant foot.
The hidden cameras, intended to document tigers’ lives in the park, installed by Conservation biologist Firoz Ahmed, said he and his colleagues make daily checks on the metal boxes containing cameras; they are often torn down.
“We have kung-fu elephants. They just come and trap our cameras,” Mr. Ahmed said.
“That’s why we go everyday, to put the camera in place again. Some photo traps are not to be touched, and some are daily traps. ‘
The cameras are mounted in pairs and housed in 30lbs (12 kg) steel boxes for safekeeping.
“We had to have equipment that could sustain an elephant trampling,” said Ahmed, a tiger-watching biologist and employee of Aaranyak, a nonprofit organization dedicated to wildlife conservation.
He said the actual targets, the Indian tigers, recognize the camera, so the device must constantly be moved.
‘When we resampled an area, we had less [population] density, and we believe it was because they recognized the photographic traps. ‘
They are very cunning, and they know their environment very well. When we raised the camera, they came to see and remember the place.
‘They think, ‘I know there’s a camera here, and I don’t like it. ”
‘When we went out and watched our cameras, we saw signs of a tiger moving around, then we saw them go around the camera, behind the camera, and out into the street again.’
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