Baby Elephant Steals Reporter's Spotlight in 'Hilarious' Video

A TV reporter kept his cool for as long as possible when a baby elephant disrupted his broadcast, but the animal finally upstaged him in a video that has captured hearts online.

Alvin Patterson Kaunda was delivering a news report on Friday at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which rescues elephants and rhinos from poaching and habitat destruction in Kenya. Reporting for Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), Kaunda was covering the devastating impact of Kenya's current drought on wildlife in the region.

"It was actually my first time at the trust," Kaunda told Newsweek. "I knew I was going to see the elephants but didn't know that they'd let me so close to them."

In a clip viewed 7.5 million times on Twitter, Kaunda gave his report to the camera with a microphone in hand. He posed in front of a group of baby elephants, which sauntered ever closer to his body.

"It is said charity begins at home, and for these young orphaned elephants, this charitable foundation is what they call home," said Kaunda. "It is the place where they discover and are taught life's lessons, experience love, and grapple with loss. And even for millions of other species, home hangs in the balance."

As one elephant began to nudge Kaunda's left side, the reporter placed a hand over the animal's head and gently held him off. What he could not see yet was another mischievous young elephant's trunk approaching from behind.

"Human actions are destroying habitats, decimating our entire ecosystem and disrupting the circle of life," Kaunda went on, as the trunk poked his left ear, plopped on top of his head and slowly crept down the front of his face.

"Under the rise in drought cases, it is up to us to be guardians of our own natural world, save our wild species, and provide a home..." the reporter continued, even after his eyes were obstructed by the trunk. When the tip of the trunk tickled his nose, he finally gave in to a fit of giggles.

Kaunda told Newsweek this was his 10th take on the piece, so he did his best to keep going.

"I didn't want to mess it up to start all over again," he said. "And I wasn't going to let anything stop me. Until the baby elephant stuck its trunk in my mouth. That made me laugh hard because it tickled as it browsed through my ears all the way, but I held my laugh until the very end."

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's Nairobi National Park Nursery is home to 38 elephant orphans, while 96 orphans who are still dependent on milk and keepers live in its facilities in Tsavo, according to leader Angela Sheldrick.

"We have raised over 320 elephants over the years," Sheldrick told Newsweek.

Human populations have expanded dramatically into areas that were previously home to wildlife in Kenya. As water and land have grown scarcer for wild animals, crop raiding, livestock predation and human-wildlife conflict have increased. The population of Kenya is projected to become more than 50 percent larger by 2030, further stressing the relationship between humans and wild beasts.

Over 200 elephants in Kenya have perished this year because of the nation's worst drought in 40 years, according to a report from Kenya's Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage this month. The drought has also killed 512 wildebeests, 381 common zebras and 51 buffalo. Elephants drink hundreds of liters of water daily, but in hot weather, they can lose 10 percent of their body's water in a single day, according to a 2020 study in Royal Society Open Science.

'A Nose For News'

As the clip of Kaunda's report went viral, viewers responded with a chorus of appreciation for the persevering journalist and his "hilarious" disruptor.

"Elephant is telling him he has a nose for good news stories," joked a Twitter user.

"He kept it all together and professional for far longer than I would have been able to!" said another. "Once that trunk had started exploring my ear [I'd] have been in pieces!"

Another viewer on Reddit commented, "The best part is that the report is to help the elephant sanctuary and nothing does that better [than] the elephant being playful and his amazing reaction to it."

Update 11/16/22 11:37 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Alvin Patterson Kaunda and Angela Sheldrick.