2010 World Cup fever continues
Monday, August 9th, 2010
Visitors to the Kruger National Park nature reserve in the Republic of South Africa were surprised to see how the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup fever seems to have been adopted by the natural wildlife there.
Guests near a rest camp reportedly saw a young male elephant playing soccer with a flattened beer can that one of the tourists had allegedly thrown out of their car windows.
The elephant was said to have taken the empty can in its trunk, thrown it into the air and allowing it to fall on its head, and then let it hit the ground before attempting to kick it, like a football player practicing tricks with a soccer ball on the field. The elephant was reported to have repeated this several times.
It continued to kick the can about for some 20 minutes before it eventually gave up and moved on. Animal care workers at the Pretoria and Johannesburg zoos claim that many animals in South Africa were given balls to play with during the football spectacle and allegedly the popular video website Youtube is full of clips showing how the various monkeys, zebras and other wild animals can adopt the soccer fever just like humans.
