Peanuts only, please!
A Spanish tourist is under fire after viral footage showed him pouring beer down an elephant’s trunk at a wildlife sanctuary in Kenya.
The obnoxious act, reported by the BBC, has been slammed by conservationists as dangerous and deeply disrespectful to the animals and the country’s conservation efforts.
The incident occurred at Ol Jogi Conservancy in central Kenya’s Laikipia County. In the now-deleted video, the man — who uses the Instagram handle @skydive_kenya — is seen drinking from a can of Tusker, a popular Kenyan beer, before pouring the remainder into the trunk of a bull elephant.
He captioned the post: “Just a tusker with a tusked friend.”
The footage sparked swift outrage across social media, prompting multiple investigations, including by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Ol Jogi Conservancy confirmed the incident happened on their grounds, calling the behavior “unacceptable, dangerous, and completely against our values.”
“This should never have happened. We’re a conservation and we can’t allow that to happen,” a staffer, only identified as Frank, said.
“We don’t even allow people to go near the elephants.”
The elephant in the video has been identified as Bupa, a large, long-tusked bull with distinctive, damaged ivory. Bupa is well-known among visitors to the conservancy and was rescued from a mass elephant cull in Zimbabwe in 1989. Since then, he has served as an ambassador for conservation at Ol Jogi.
The sanctuary insisted they take cases like this incident “extremely seriously.”
In another now-deleted video, the same man is seen feeding carrots to two elephants while saying, “We are on beer time.” Additional clips show him at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, where he hand-feeds rhinos — another violation of park guidelines.
“He has also broken our rules,” said Dylan Habil from Ol Pejeta. “He was not supposed to touch the rhinos. They are not pets.”
The man, who describes himself as an “adrenaline junkie” on TikTok, does not use his real name on his public social media accounts. His behavior has drawn sharp criticism from conservationists and wildlife advocates who fear that such viral stunts encourage harmful and misleading interactions with wild animals.
Dr. Winnie Kiiru, a Kenyan biologist and elephant conservationist, warned that the stunt not only endangered the elephant but also misrepresented the nature of wild animals to global audiences.
“About 95% of elephants in Kenya are wild, and it is wrong to have social media posts that give the impression that you can get close to the elephants and feed them,” she told the BBC.
There is no evidence that elephants can safely consume alcohol. Experts say feeding them foreign substances — especially something like beer — could disrupt their digestion, behavior, and overall health.
People online are furious about the man’s actions.
“Wtf is wrong with humans,” someone said on the BBC’s Instagram. Another called out the man’s “disgusting behaviour.”
Some called for the man to be banned from conservatories for life, while some even insisted he be jailed.
“People need to be put in cages so animals can roam freely,” another claimed.
“People just ruin things,” someone said.
But stunts like this aren’t just dangerous for animals.
Incidents involving elephants are the fifth top cause of deadly selfies, according to a new study by the Barber Law Firm.
Recently, a tourist in India who attempted to snap a photo with an elephant was severely injured after being trampled and stripped, revealing his bare behind for all manner of beasts to bear witness.
Read the full article here
