Word: mandjullah
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Eleven years ago, Chang was bundled into the Zurich zoo's elephant pit, a fat, ludicrous baby only ten months old. He had been bought as the future mate for Mandjullah, an older female. Rapidly he became the zoo's star attraction and the pride of his keeper, Hans Rietmann. When Mandjullah took the kids for a ride on her back, Chang trundled awkwardly behind, amiably accepting peanuts. Sometimes he would even snuggle his trunk into a pocket to pluck out a piece of candy...
...management wanted to kill Chang, but Keeper Rietmann pleaded for mercy. Chang was spared. Until two weeks ago, he gave no more trouble. Then suddenly he became aggressive, even attacking Mandjullah. Again Hans Rietmann defended the animal. Chang, he said, was entering his bullhood and would be upset for a while. The chains that tied Chang during the night were reinforced; keepers were forbidden to enter the pit alone...
Later that night, the trumpeting din of elephants fighting aroused the sleeping zoo. The zoo director rushed to Chang's pit, found him attacking Mandjullah. On the floor he found Rietmann's dead body. This time there was no one to plead for Chang. At dawn the keepers' rifles cracked four times. Chang, the elephant with imagination, was dead...
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