Elephant in the room: Thai family used to mammoth repeat visitor
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An elephant poking its head into the kitchen as it rummaged for food in Mr Kittichai Boodchan's home in Hua Hin, near a national park in western Thailand, on Sunday in this screenshot from a video posted on Facebook. The elephant had destroyed the kitchen wall last month, he said, creating an open-air kitchen concept reminiscent of a drive-through window.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
BANGKOK • Some families living in a jungle may be fearful of things going bump in the night, but for one household in Thailand, the sight of an elephant rummaging through their kitchen was not a total shock.
"It came to cook again," quipped Mr Kittichai Boodchan in a caption for a Facebook video he filmed over the weekend of an elephant nosing its way into his kitchen.
Likely driven by the midnight munchies, the massive animal pokes its head into Mr Kittichai's kitchen in the early hours of Sunday, using its trunk to search for food.
At one point, it picks up a plastic bag of liquid, considers it briefly, and then sticks it into its mouth - before the video cuts out.
Mr Kittichai and his wife live in Hua Hin, near a national park in western Thailand, by a lake where wild elephants often bathe while roaming in the jungle.
He was unperturbed by the mammoth mammal, recognising it as a frequent visitor as it often wanders into homes in his village where it eats, leaves and shoots off back into the jungle.
The elephant had actually destroyed their kitchen wall last month, he said, creating an open-air kitchen concept reminiscent of a drive-through window.
This weekend, its sole task was to search for food.
Mr Kittichai said a general rule of thumb in dealing with unwelcome visitors is not to feed them.
"When it doesn't get food, it just leaves on its own," he said.
"I am already used to it coming, so I was not so worried."
Wild elephants are a common sight in Thailand's national parks and its surrounding areas, with farmers sometimes reporting incidents of their fruits and corn crops being eaten by a hungry herd.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE