Elephants saved tourists from tsunami

Elephants saved tourists from tsunami

KHAO LAK, Thailand: Agitated elephants felt the tsunami
coming, and their sensitivity saved about a dozen foreign
tourists from the fate of thousands killed by the giant waves.

"I was surprised because the elephants had never cried
before," mahout Dang Salangam said on Sunday on Khao Lak beach at
the eight-elephant business offering rides to tourists.

The elephants started trumpeting -- in a way Dang, 36, and his
wife Kulada, 24, said could only be described as crying -- at
first light, about the time an earthquake measured at a magnitude
of 9.0 cracked open the sea bed off Indonesia's Sumatra island.

The elephants soon calmed down. But they started wailing again
about an hour later and this time they could not be comforted
despite their mahouts' attempts at reassurance.

"The elephants didn't believe the mahouts. They just kept
running for the hill," said Wit Aniwat, 24, who takes the money
from tourists and helps them on to the back of elephants from a
sturdy wooden platform. -- Reuters