Giant Elephant Wanders Through Central Samara in Video
Video footage shows the elephant casually walking along a street in downtown Samara during the evening.
Friday evening in central Samara turned out to be incredibly exotic: a wild animal escaped from the circus building. Fortunately, it wasn«t a predatory lion or tiger, but a huge elephant. Astonished townspeople hurried to capture the bizarre sight on video.
Witnesses reported that the elephant was calmly walking through the urban streets without incident.
The elephant simply went for a walk along Molodogvardeyskaya Street towards Shanghai Square. It all happened around ten in the evening.
After its escape, circus staff gently guided the elephant back to the performance venue.
«The video was taken near the circus, they»re already catching it. Hope it doesn«t freeze,» the video author captioned the clip.
The elephant was safely returned to the circus after its unexpected stroll through Samara.
A little later, the elephant was indeed caught. Trainers had to gently persuade the animal and accompany it back across the road to the circus building. The few drivers respectfully yielded to the unusual pedestrian. And it didn«t even break traffic rules: it walked solemnly on the green light.
Resourceful Samara residents suggested that this might be an unusual promotional campaign: the Oleg Popov Samara State Circus is about to present a new show to audiences soon.
Open internet sources say that cold poses a serious danger to elephants, as they are tropical animals not adapted to low temperatures. It«s dangerous to take elephants outside already at temperatures below +15 degrees Celsius (59°F). Hypothermia can lead to illnesses, as their bodies are tuned for efficient heat dissipation in the heat, not for heat retention.
