Elephant experts are defending the animals’ reputation after it was reported that a pachyderm bit and broke a woman’s arm at a Bali animal park that has been visited by Kim Kardashian, Julia Roberts and David Beckham.
The episode made international headlines last month at the Mason Elephant Park and Lodge in Indonesia.
Park owner Nigel Mason, however, called the claim “the bite that never was.”
“It is anatomically and physically impossible to be bitten by an elephant due to its outer mouth having no teeth, and [being] soft and pliable with a large spongy tongue,” Mason told The Post. “The molar grinding teeth are located far back inside the rear of the elephant’s mouth.
“It is like accusing a man with no hands of being a pickpocket.”
Elizabeth Bogar of New Hampshire said that she was posing for a photo with the elephant, Lupcik, which she had previously ridden, when her arm was sucked into its mouth and she heard her bones cracking.
The animal’s handler of 24 years instructed it to release her arm, and it did and was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.
The elephant park paid just under half the $10,000 medical bill, according to Mason.
Coverage of the incident portrayed the incident as a bite, and Mason is concerned that the endangered species is getting a bad rap and that people will fear them.
“For the first time in history, they are being accused of biting. This story must be resolved for the reputation of elephants,” he told The Post.
Elizabeth’s husband, Les Bogar, clarified to The Post that “It was not an attack; I was sitting a few feet away and watched the whole thing. The handler instructed her to place her arm around the elephant’s trunk. As she did, the elephant mistook her arm for a piece of bamboo and, with its trunk, pushed her arm up into its mouth.
“The elephant just bit down, and I could hear the bones being crushed. I am sure the elephant just thought it was being offered food,” Les said.
Beth was not available for an interview.
Elephant behavior expert John Roberts, who works with the the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation in Thailand, said that pachyderms do not bite.
“I am 100% sure that the elephant didn’t clamp the lady with her teeth and chew with intent to swallow,” Roberts said. “Elephants can crunch coconuts with their teeth, so I think a literal bite would also have caused even more damage than suffered by this poor lady.”
He warned that elephants are unimaginably strong and can catch something between their lower lip and trunk, pointing to an incident when an elephant in Cambodia gripped American biologist and conservationist Jeff Corwin’s arm.
“Personally, and as an elephant manager, I would advise staying away from an elephant’s mouth,” Roberts said.
Mason Elephant Park and Lodge — located in the Taro hills near Ubud — is home to 30 Asian elephants that Mason himself rescued from illegal logging areas in Sumatra.
The park now runs a successful breeding program and won the world’s first animal welfare Gold Certification by Asian Captive Elephant Standards.
