Even worse is when you see photos of Elephants teetering on the edges of moats, sometimes on three legs in order to reach that little further to get a food offering. Surprised these accidents weren't more commonplace.
As I said earlier I cannot find it at the moment, but I think Oliver Graham-Jones in his first book said there had been a few accidents prior to the fatal one. The biggest teeter I ever saw was Lakhsmi doing an incredible balancing act on the edge of her indoor stall - at least with an individual stall she could not be pushed in. I am wondering if the occasion I recall of feeding fruit pastilles to the elephants was just a few weeks before Diksie's** death. We used to visit London around that time every year and I'd have been starting my second year at school in September 1967. I do remember my mother telling me about the accident after it had featured on the news.
**I favour the spelling "Diksie" which is the one used by Oliver Graham-Jones, and Clin Keeling did tell me he thought this was the official one, although of course there are a number of versions with no one else on this thread so far using "mine". "George Cansdale's Zoo Book" uses "Diksi", and says she was the only African Elephant in the country at the time of publication.
P.S. If Diksie had not had her fatal accident would Zoo Check/Born Free have been established? There would not have been a vacancy for an African Elephant at Regent's Park, so Pole Pole would not have arrived.
