One day in March 2012, an African woman was preparing for her husband's funeral when suddenly a herd of elephants rushed towards the house where she lived.
The woman, whose name was François, was fearless and clearly mentally prepared for such a scene.
Until the guests dispersed, a total of 21 elephants appeared at her husband's funeral.
"Elephants cry more sincerely than people."
This was the most profound feeling of the relatives and friends who attended the funeral that day.
What's going on here?
People often say that there is animism, but to get so many elephants' sincerity, Lawrence must have paid a lot for it?
In 1999, Lawrence received a call from Kruger National Park.
Kruger National Park is the largest nature reserve in Africa and is home to a wide variety of large wildlife.
Frightened by a poacher attack, an elephant herd ran out of the park and into a nearby village. It has now caused a lot of trouble to the residents in the vicinity. ”
The staff briefly told Lawrence about the elephant herd, and then said what it really meant:
"Can you take in these elephants here?" If not, they will all be executed after 2 days. ”
With almost no hesitation, Lawrence responded repeatedly to the phone: "Okay, okay, no problem!" ”
Lawrence answered instinctively and without thinking.
After hanging up the phone, Lawrence realized that he had promised to be light, but where the elephants had come to live, he had no eyebrows at all.
As the saying goes, the problems in the world that can be solved with money are not problems, and if a penny is difficult for a hero, Lawrence is unfortunately also difficult.
He has no money!
It takes a lot of fencing to trap the elephants, but he can't afford to buy them at the moment.
Lawrence brought in his wife, François. After a brief discussion, the two decided to start fundraising online.
Lawrence was in charge of fundraising online, and François was responsible for calling friends for help.
Fortunately, there are always many caring people in this world, and they can't see any living beings being killed.
In just one night, Lawrence had raised enough money.
The next day, just as Lawrence was about to dial the national park staff, the phone rang duly.
"Because the elephants are too emotional, the villagers are worried that they will pose a threat to the lives of the villagers. The administrator has taken the lead in shooting the leader of the elephant herd, and a female elephant who can only lead the herd. ”
In the face of powerful objects, force and suppression are always the first choice for human beings to solve problems.
The villagers thought that by shooting the female elephant, the elephant herd would settle down, but unexpectedly, their move further angered the elephant herd, and the elephant herd was restless in fear.
The elephants began to run around, arching when they saw things, with the momentum of stepping on the whole village.
As Lawrence had suspected, if the elephants attacked again, the villagers would shoot them all to death.
"We can't wait any longer, and if we wait any longer, the elephants will be killed."
After consulting with his wife, the couple immediately set off for Kruger National Park.
Lawrence and François deserved soul mates.
They agreed on the adoption of the elephants with little communication, and now when it came time to save the elephants in fear and anger, the two were in agreement.
A few hours later, the couple arrived at Kruger National Park.
"I think we still overestimated our abilities and underestimated the power of elephants."
Referring to the first time he saw an out-of-control elephant herd, François confessed.
The physical pressure was the first thing the two of them felt when they saw the elephant herd.
In the face of this group of behemoths in front of them, the couple really had no idea.
The reason why the husband and wife are afraid in their hearts is that they don't know the knowledge of raising elephants at all, and they don't know how to calm down the elephants.
They took the phone that day only out of human instinct, out of the original intention of her husband and her to establish an animal sanctuary for the first time.
Obviously, the current situation of this group of elephants has exceeded their expectations and tolerances.
But it's not their style to pick a fight. There was no way, the couple could only harden their scalps and rush upwards.
After a brief handover with the national park staff, the couple began to prepare for the loading of the elephants.
Before they could start their busy work, the elephants were agitated again, and the usually docile elephants were now full of anxiety.
They paced back and forth, arching their noses around the village, not to mention being close to them, even if they looked at them from a distance, which was terrifying.
After careful observation, Lawrence found that there were 8 elephants in total, and the leading elephant was shaking its nose vigorously, arching the agricultural tools in front of a villager's house, and the other 7 elephants were also walking back and forth.
One elephant walked around, 8 elephants walked together, and everyone could clearly feel the ground shaking under their feet. If you do not interfere any longer, after a long time, the residents' houses will probably collapse.
Elephants were walking anxiously, and the villagers who provoked the incident were not idle.
They had secretly loaded their guns, loaded them with bullets, and aimed them at the eight elephants one by one.
Lawrence, who had seen countless hunts and massacres, realized that if this situation was allowed to continue, it was inevitable that 8 elephants would lie on the ground in an instant.
Lawrence is not a professional animal protection agency, he used to work in real estate development business, because of the work, he often followed the team to the field trip, sometimes to the countryside, sometimes to the city.
By chance, he and his team entered a place where South African aborigines lived.
In the end it was the primitive tribe, and everywhere Lawrence saw it was full of large wild animals.
Lawrence, who has been living in a big city all year round and trapped in the pressures of life, has felt unprecedented calm.
However, this calm Lawrence did not enjoy for long, and soon he was awakened by the sound of the hunter's gunshots.
Human greed is everywhere, and even primitive tribes far from the hustle and bustle of the city are not spared.
At the same time as the sound of gunshots, various wild animals fell to the ground.
This scene made Lawrence stunned in place, and he could not return to his mind for a long time.
He could not accept it in any way, galloping freely in his own world, why should human beings go in and stir up trouble? What right do humans have to intervene in their lives and hunt them so brutally?
After the end of the work, lawrence, who returned home, felt more and more heartache the more he thought about it, and after several hesitations, he resolutely ran to the company and quit his original job.
He was ready to be the messenger of the protection of these wild animals, and he would build a protected area on that land, drive away those foreign hunters, and return the wild animals to a living area that "only the laws of nature, no human norms."
Lawrence held out the hand of God, and he wanted to return the wild animals to a world of life with only the laws of nature.
After all, he was still too short-sighted.
His intentions were certainly good, but for animals, all these saving measures he did may backfire.
Not all people have a compassionate heart.
All he did made the animals living in this primordial land think that all human beings could live in peace with them, and lowered their guard against human beings.
This is more conducive to the hunter's hunting of them.
He could save the animals for a while, but not for the rest of their lives, but Lawrence still felt that everything he had done was worth it.
Because of this original intention, he made a home in South Africa. Here he met his like-minded wife, François.
After Lawrence and Lawrence married, François sold all his belongings directly in order to support her husband's career, ran to the zulu chieftain's house, and bought a geographically located and huge plain from the chief.
When everything was ready, the couple bought a fence, rented a van, and a few months later, a wildlife sanctuary popped up out of nowhere.
In order to facilitate the care of these wild animals, the couple built a simple log cabin in the corner of the plain.
The wooden house simply placed some daily necessities to meet the minimum living needs.
The rest of the money, they all spent on wildlife conservation projects, for the management and repair of protected areas.
By the time Lawrence received a call from the national park, they had been living on the reserve for nearly 10 years.
After a brief discussion with the caretaker, Lawrence decided to go up and appease the restless elephants himself.
Lawrence tried to emotionally sensitize the eight elephants, quiet them down, and then load them into the car one by one and transport them back to his animal sanctuary.
Lawrence's approach is actually quite simple.
People always say that the heart is exchanged for the heart, and the same applies in nature.
He first lowered his posture, crouched down, and slowly approached the leader of the elephant herd, adjusting his steps so that the leader of the elephant group could see him clearly.
After adjusting the position into place, Lawrence swung his arms to make a "relaxed" gesture.
After seeing the elephant gradually calm down, Lawrence then sang a song, in a calm tone similar to the sleeping song.
Lawrence tried to appease the elephants at this end, and the villagers in the distance stared at the elephants one by one with guns.
Lawrence's appeasement worked. The leader of the elephant herd gradually became quiet, and soon, the 7 elephants behind it also quieted down one by one, and they followed the leader elephant and made the same movements.
Lawrence won the trust of the elephants with his sincerity.
Taking advantage of the quiet work of the elephant herd, the staff anesthetized all 8 elephants.
Under the control of anesthesia, 8 elephants were carried onto a truck.
By the time the elephants opened their eyes again, they were already at lawrence's wildlife sanctuary.
"It's far from simple." Just when the villagers were optimistic that the matter was completely over, Laurenstein said.
Lawrence, who has been caring for more than a decade, knows that the elephants will not be safe in the reserve in the first place. They will certainly do everything they can to escape the reserve.
A thunderous, rainy night of lightning and thunder confirmed Lawrence's conjecture.
Due to the weather and the persistence of the elephants themselves, the eight elephants arched together to knock down a 9-meter-high tree.
The elephant herd used tree trunks to pry open the power grid of the reserve and fled the reserve.
By the next day, the couple saw the reserve again, and the area was in a mess.
Human beings yearn for freedom, but why shouldn't animals? Humans miss their homeland, and elephants naturally do not forget their homeland.
This group of behemoths will not only cause trouble to people outside, but also bring themselves the disaster of killing, in order to find these 8 elephants as soon as possible, the couple paid for helicopters and off-road vehicles.
It took ten days to travel through most of the surrounding areas, and finally found the 8 elephants in a hidden jungle.
After every effort was made to bring it back to the reserve, new problems followed.
You can find them this time, not necessarily next time.
Lawrence, who did not want the elephant to escape for the second time, immediately discussed with his wife: "I want to have a sincere conversation with the elephant again." ”
Lawrence sang and told stories to the 8 elephants as if he were his own child, eating and sleeping with them.
How long these days passed, Lawrence could not remember clearly.
Until that day Lawrence suddenly felt as if something was scratching him on his back.
Turning back, it was the leader of the elephant herd who used it to use his nose to gently scratch his back.
Lawrence's sincerity finally opened the hearts of the elephants, and since then, the eight elephants have not taken half a step out of the reserve.
Not only that, but whenever Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence visited the elephant herd, Nana and her companions would come from deep in the woods to greet them.
Nana was the name Lawrence gave to the chief.
Nana's story is constantly playing out in Lawrence's reserve.
In 2012, lawrence's animal sanctuary has become a paradise for many animals.
The original 8 elephants developed into 21 elephants, including crocodiles, antelopes, leopards, rhinos and other hundreds of animals.
In March 2012, Lawrence died of a heart attack while working in a class in South Africa.
As if telepathically, the day after François prepared for Lawrence's funeral, the 21 elephants rushed from deep in the woods to their cabin.
From silence to roaring in the sky, the 21 elephants presented their highest tributes in their own way to their former benefactors.
The herd of elephants gave Lawrence his last ride. After the funeral, 21 elephants accompanied François for another seven days in front of the wooden house.
After that, they dispersed.
"I hope that they will remain wary of human beings, that they will still be able to speculate about human beings in the worst possible way, so that at least they can survive in the vast plains."
Looking at the back of the elephants leaving, François thought to himself.
-Ends-
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