Motorists on the Old Rustenburg road near Damdoryn had to blink twice on Friday afternoon to make sure they were seeing correctly when they encountered an elephant bull along the road.
The lone elephant bull was strolling unconcerned along the road, unaware of the disbelief he was causing.
It seems the bull escaped from the nearby Elephant Sanctuary after thieves cut the fence to a neighbouring property the previous night. He wandered onto the neighbouring farm and from there along the R104 towards Damdoryn.
“We have been experiencing a lot of opportunistic theft while the lodge is closed. Intruders have been cutting our boundary fences and stealing the iron fence posts for scrap metal,” a spokesperson for the Elephant Sanctuary said.
Once the sanctuary was alerted that the elephant was out, management and staff quickly went to the elephant’s aid in order to coax him back onto the property. “When the elephant realised he was not in his own space, he obviously felt a little disoriented and earnestly tried to find a gap in the fence to return back home, breaking a section of fence next to the main road on his way back onto the farm. Once back on home soil, he was clearly elated to be back in his own safe space and territory and went on casually walking back up the mountain,” the spokesperson said.