Wild animals – where?

Kenneth Miln has emailed his account of a jute-wallah’s experience with “wild animals” in the African bush:

“Some years past while working on a jute-mill project in a central African country, I had a most unusual experience.

“Just before dawn one morning I was awoken by clunking noises from outside the bedroom’s partly open window. Within seconds I realised that something was amiss and, pulling on my shorts, grabbed the pistol from the bedside table intending to fire a few warning shots. However, thieves had made off with a wheel from our car.

“Making a desperate attempt to recover the wheel, I rushed out of the back door but after some 50 yards I was surprised by our gardener, old Dhaka, who, wearing a quizzical expression, asked me: ‘Bwana, what were you chasing at this early hour and improperly dressed ?’ He implored me to return to the house without delay, explaining that an elephant, a lion and a wart-hog were on the rampage nearby.

“In utter disbelief I replied that no such animals had been seen in the district for many years. Shaking his head vigorously old Dhaka explained: ‘ The animals were in a trailer bound for a zoo and have broken free.’

“We both returned to the house without seeing, or hearing, anything of the ‘wild animals’.

“Unfortunately, a day later the elephant was shot by local police officers: The fate of the lion and warthog remain a mystery !”