Elephant provides breakdown assistance to zoo keeper

An elephant put its size to good use when it helped a zoo keeper start his car by giving it a shove. Lawrence Bates was all set to call for assistance when his jeep at West Midland Safari Park broke down, until Five the elephant decided to give him a helping hand.

The 18-year-old African Elephant got behind and pushed the car out of trouble and out of the enclosure. Director of Wildlife, Bob Lawrence, said: "The jeep broke down one morning and the lads jumped out to have a look at it, popped the bonnet and had a look at the oil.



"We still couldn't get it to start so gave it a push start, eventually got it going - at this time though its covered with dirty hand marks so Five gave it a quick wash and a hose down. But the jeep broke down again and to our astonishment Five came over and decided to give us a hand.

"She lifted the bonnet up, got the dipstick, and gave it to Lawrence. When we still couldn't get it to start, she went round the back and gave us a push. I've never seen anything like this in my life - it was absolutely incredible."