Hungry elephant smashes kitchen wall to rummage for snacks in Thailand home
A peckish elephant in Thailand – a repeat offender – was seen breaking through part of a kitchen wall of a house to rummage for snacks in a now-viral video clip.
The incident took place in southern Thailand’s Hua Hin district in Ratchadawan Puengprasoppon’s home who filmed it on Saturday.
Ms Puengprasoppon posted on her Facebook that she was woken up by strange noises coming from the kitchen during the night. When she went to inspect, she found an elephant’s head poking through from the wall.
Ms Puengprasoppon said the elephant, locally known as Boonchuay, appeared to be rummaging for food. Local reports said the elephant rummaged through kitchen drawers and knocked down pots and pans onto the floor.
The Guardian reported that the elephant has made a prior visit to Ms Puengprasoppon’s home, causing damage of about $1,140.
Boonchuay lives in Thailand’s Kaeng Krachan national park and visits the Chalermkiatpattana village where Ms Puengprasoppon’s lives. Itthipon Thaimonkol, the park’s superintendent was quoted as saying: “They come to visit quite often. They always come when there is the local market because they can smell food.”
This is not that uncommon in Thailand (I've been in a house while this was happening, it's scary as hell), unfortunately. This is why we're studying the relationship between elephant and human behavior there, and why the conflict is such a major concern. photo: R. Phungprasopporn pic.twitter.com/9Wgj3plP5x
— Josh Plotnik (ดร. โจชัว พลอท์นิก) 🐘 (@CCCAnimals) June 20, 2021
Mr Thaimonkol said that villagers are often respectful of the animals and that volunteers from the local community and an officer of the national park work together to monitor the animals. Villagers often use loud noises to deter the elephants from raiding their homes and to scare them back to the park.
Today is that rare day in Thailand when everyone is actually talking about the elephant in the room... pic.twitter.com/NRoE8k63yf
— James Buchanan จิมมี่ (@JBuchananBKK) June 20, 2021
Dr Joshua Plotnik, an assistant professor of psychology at Hunter College, City University of New York, who studies the elephant population in the Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary in Kanchanaburi, western Thailand, told The Guardian that it was very common for elephants from national parks to raid nearby crop fields for sugarcane or corn.
We're working in Thailand's Kaeng Krachan National Park to reduce human-elephant conflict and protect Asian elephant habitat. 🐘
Alongside communities we’re working to deter elephants from nearby farmland and installing surveillance cameras to monitor elephant movements. pic.twitter.com/JUGpgRn2Fd— WWF UK (@wwf_uk) June 18, 2021
He said: “In the villages in which I work in Thailand, elephants enter farmers’ crop fields almost nightly. This is a really difficult issue for both the farmers and the elephants.”
He added that such instances are “likely due to a decrease in available resources and an increase in human disturbances in the elephants’ habitat,” adding that “Methods such as physical barriers or moving elephants would only have a short-term impact.”
Local news reported that the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation has issued a statement saying that the government agency would repair the house as soon as possible. It said that local officials are also discussing compensation for the loss.
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