I’m not overly prone to sentimentality but this one caught my attention:

In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from
Northwestern University and serving as a wildlife ranger whose job is to
prevent unwarranted killing of animals by poachers.

On a hike through the bush, he came across a less than one-year old
bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed
distressed and had been abandoned by the herd, so Mbembe approached it
very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant’s foot
and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as
gently as he could, Mbembe worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after
which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to
face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for
several tense moments .

Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually
the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.

Twenty years later (elephants have 70 year life spans), Mbembe was
walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the
elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near
where Mbembe and his son Tapu were standing. The large bull elephant
stared at Mbembe, lifted its front foot off the ground, and then put it down.
The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring
at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn’t help wondering if
this was the same elephant. Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the
railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the
elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again,
wrapped its trunk around one of Mbembe’s legs and slammed him against the
railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn’t the same elephant…