ANIMAL ATTACK FILES
 
 
Celebrity Sheep Killed By Elephant?
 

Report of  December 1, 1998 

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A ewe that achieved celebrity status in
South Africa has been killed, probably by the baby elephant she 
adopted from the wild. 

``Skaap'' the name is Afrikaans for sheep -- was found dead last week
in the shed she shared with Jabulani, the two-year-old elephant she
had raised as one of her own. 

``She had a lot of hemorrhaging and it looks as if she may have had a
heart attack. The elephant may have pinned her by mistake. He's
done it before,'' Peter Rogers, the veterinarian who performed the
autopsy, told Reuters. 

Skaap shot to national fame by raising the orphaned Jabulani at the
Hodespruit Breeding and Research Center for Endangered Species.
The improbable pair had spent nearly every waking moment together. 

Rogers said the elephant, which is due to be released back into the
wild early next year, was doing reasonably well. 

``He seems okay now, but he was very quiet for the first couple of
days after the incident,'' Rogers said. ``He was gradually becoming
more independent of the sheep anyway,'' he added. 

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