An Elephant Took Aim at the News Camera and Did Not Miss

What's going on

Japanese summers have gotten hot enough that "how are the zoo animals holding up" has become a fixed seasonal news item. Local papers send someone out with a camera, come back with tigers sitting in pools and elephants hosing themselves down, and readers file it under mildly reassuring.

A regional newspaper in Ishikawa Prefecture, up on the Sea of Japan coast, was doing exactly that at Ishikawa Zoo in Nomi City during a stretch of severe heat. The elephant footage was going fine. Then one of the elephants filled its trunk, made a convincing show of aiming at its own back, pivoted, and delivered the whole load to the reporter.

The zoo is designed to let visitors observe animals from unusually close range. Several people who have been there noted that this design choice cuts both ways.

Comments

@hokkokushimbunOfficial

Was filming the elephant when it suddenly doused me 🐘

ゾウを撮影していたら、突然水をかけられました🐘

@hokkokushimbun · View on X

@hokkokushimbunOfficial

[Hot enough to make an elephant sweat! Tiger it easy out there!] Punishing heat on the 6th, and at Ishikawa Zoo in Nomi City you could see the animals feeling it. Elephants showering, tigers sitting in the water — each of them looking for a way to cool off.

【あっついゾウ！タイガいにして！】猛暑に見舞われた６日、いしかわ動物園（能美市）でも、暑さにこたえる動物たちの姿が見られました。水浴びするゾウ、水につかるトラ…。それぞれに涼を求めていました。

@hokkokushimbun · View on X

The headline is built out of two animal puns. “Attsui zō” means “it’s hot” with an emphatic ending, except the ending is spelled as zō, “elephant.” “Taigai ni shite” means roughly “give it a rest already,” except the first half is spelled taigā, “tiger.” Newspaper headline writers here treat a heatwave story as an invitation.

way more of a direct hit than I expected lol

思ってた以上に狙い撃ちで草

straight-up sniped him lmao

狙い撃ちwww

he really got a solid amount on him, that’s funny

かなりしっかりめにかけられて笑う

ok this is funny lol elephants pull this kind of thing?? lol

これは笑うわw 象こんなことしてくるんだw

smart… it properly lined up the shot first lol

賢いなぁ…ちゃんと狙ってかけてて草

The way you can see it thinking “right, that one’s getting it” is like a mischievous kid. Cute!

あいつにかけたろ！って狙ってる感じが、いたずらっ子みたいでかわいいですね！

The suspense while it’s loading up the water 🤣 Fakes you out by hosing its own body once, clamps the trunk shut, turns, and SPLOOSH 🐘🚿 Incredible. Trunk control: excellent 🐘

水溜めてる間のﾄﾞｷﾄﾞｷ感🤣1回自分の体にかけると見せかけて鼻でｷﾞｭｯと栓して向きを変えてﾌﾞｼｬｰ🐘🚿すごい。コントロール良し🐘

nice bit of wrist snap on the release lol

いい感じにスナップかけてて草

No matter how many times I watch, the trunk looks like a separate animal. Amazing. It functions as a pump. The division of labor between trunk and brain is impressive enough that I want to sit down and think about it.

何度見ても鼻が別の生き物に見える。すごいな。ポンプとしての役割を持ってる。鼻と脳の役割を考えたいくらい凄い分担能力。

I really like it when you can see an animal’s intelligence in the way it moves. Cute.

こういう生き物の知性が見える動きが凄く好きで可愛い

Guaranteed fan service, no fair! (Fan service here is idol-concert vocabulary — the moment a performer clearly picks you out of the crowd and acknowledges you.)

確定ファンサずるい！

There. Cooled you right down, didn’t I 🐘

どうだ、涼しくなったろう🐘

Less a prank, more a considerate “here, have some of this~” 🤣🤣🤣

イタズラというより浴びとけ〜？みたいな気遣いを感じる🤣🤣🤣

Elephant: “You’re hot too, right? Here you go.”

ゾウ「お前も暑いだろ、ほらよ」

It’s clean water, so I’d call this the elephant being thoughtful.

綺麗なお水ですからゾウさんの気遣いだと思います。

Perhaps it was doing the reporter a favor so he wouldn’t get heatstroke? 🙂🐘☀

記者さんが熱中症にならない様に、サービスして頂けたのではないでしょうか？🙂🐘☀

Well yeah, peeping on a shower scene always ends this way. That’s the rule.

そりゃシャワーシーンを覗いたらそうなるのはお約束よ

So this is the fabled “Eeek, Nobita, you perv!” getting-water-thrown-at-you moment (In Doraemon, the hapless boy Nobita keeps blundering into Shizuka’s bath and catching a washbasin of water to the face; the line is one of the most quoted in Japanese cartoons.) (it isn’t

これが幻の「きゃーのび太さんのエッチー」って水掛けられるやつか（違

It got angry about the violation of its image rights, obviously

肖ゾウ権の侵害で怒ったんでしょ

The word for image rights — the legal right to control the use of your own likeness — is shōzōken. Swap the middle syllable for the identically pronounced zō, “elephant,” and you get shō-zō-ken: elephant image rights. The joke costs exactly one character.

Happens fairly often (ΦωΦ)

割とよくある(ΦωΦ)

I’ve played enough games that I read the wind-up and dodged it, but it left me with a thing — my body still stiffens whenever I see an elephant

ゲームのやりすぎで予測出来てたからこれ避けれたけどそれからトラウマでゾウ見ると身体こわばる

My last memory of my late grandpa is at Ishikawa Zoo, up on his shoulders looking at the elephant, and the elephant soaking us both

死んだじーちゃんとの最後の記憶、いしかわ動物園で肩車してもらって象見てたら象に二人とも水ぶっかけられたこと

This reminds me of the little zoo at Yamajigoku in Beppu, back when it existed (Beppu is a hot-spring town in Kyushu where several of the steam vents were run as paid attractions, some with small zoos attached.). I’d bought the elephant snacks (100 yen) and was standing there holding them while I talked with a keeper, and the elephant, who wanted them, misted me with water. Elephants are smart 🐘

むかし別府にあった山地獄の動物園で、ゾウさん用のおやつ（１００円）を買って手に持ったまま飼育係の方と話していたら、おやつが欲しいゾウさんが水を霧雨状にして私にかけてきた事を思い出しました。ゾウさんは賢い🐘

Umeko, the elephant at the zoo in Odawara Castle Park, used to blast people with water too~ 🐘 (Odawara is a castle town southwest of Tokyo; Umeko lived there for more than sixty years and was a local celebrity.) Takes me back 🤣😂🤣😂w

昔、小田原城址公園の動物園にいた梅子も勢いよく水かけてきたよなぁ〜🐘 懐かしい🤣😂🤣😂w

This brought back Umeko 🐘, the elephant kept at Odawara Castle 💡😌 When little kids gathered round, Umeko 🐘 would beam and scatter water gently over their heads like a shower 🚿🧒👧☺️🐘 The kids shrieking with delight was part of the package 😆 Umeko 🐘 had a real showman’s spirit 👍

小田原城で飼われていたゾウのウメ子🐘を思い出しました💡😌 チビッ子が集まってくると、ウメ子🐘がものすごい笑顔でチビッ子達の頭上にシャワー🚿のように、ふんわりと水を撒いてました🧒👧☺️🐘 チビッ子達が嬉しそうにキャーキャー盛り上がるまでがセットで😆 サービス精神満点のウメ子🐘でした👍

Ishikawa Zoo is apparently designed so you can observe the animals from an intimate distance, and I have a memory of being pulled along by the hand by a frightened child — “Shhh! Mom! Hide! He’ll thee uth! He’ll thee uth!” — and watching this very elephant from behind a hedge. Turns out that wasn’t the wrong call after all.

いしかわ動物園は、親しい距離感で動物を観察できるよう工夫されているそうで、こちらのゾウさんには「しーっ！ママ！かくれて！みちゅかる！みちゅかる！」と、怯える子供に手を引かれて植え込みの陰から観察した思い出があるのですが、その行動も案外と間違いではなかったようです。

My take

It had not occurred to me that an elephant might come equipped with a ranged attack. Never let your guard down.

Source & translation note

Comments loosely translated for tone. Reactions collected from Togetter and X threads.

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