Elephant Injures Worker at L.A. Zoo

An out-of-control elephant charged a worker at the Los Angeles Zoo on Saturday, injuring the man and terrifying scores of onlookers.

“It looked like the elephant took his head, then knocked him down and tried to trample him,” said Charles Sherman, who captured the incident with a dramatic sequence of photographs. “It was all over in a few seconds. It went very, very fast.”

The zoo worker, Ranold Potter, 27, of Huntington Beach, was assisting a handler who was taking the elephant through a training exercise. He was taken to Glendale Memorial Hospital, where a hospital spokeswoman said he was in stable condition with a fractured rib.

Zoo officials called the incident an accident. They said it appeared that the elephant had slipped, but later added that they were still investigating. The pachyderm, named Calle, is a female Asian elephant in her late 20s, said Jennie McNary, the principal handler at the zoo.

“She was going through her daily routine,” McNary said. Calle was well trained and not considered dangerous, McNary said, adding that incidents leading to injury to animal handlers are extremely rare.

Sherman said that at one point Potter approached the elephant, and it looked as though the animal was startled. That is when Potter was knocked to the ground beneath the elephant, Sherman said.

The injured zoo worker crawled away and eventually got to his feet. Witnesses said the animal’s handler got Calle under control within seconds.