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Cheeky elephant gets a selfie at West Midland Safari Park

Does my trunk look big in this? A cheeky elephant gets a snapshot selfie after picking up an iPhone at West Midland Safari Park.

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When Scott Brierly dropped his phone in the elephant area at the safari park in Bewdley he thought he would have to wait for keepers to retrieve it for him.

But to his amazement he was beaten to the post by African elephant Latabe who picked it up before putting it back down.

When keepers later retrieved his iPhone Scott was shocked to find that the 22-year-old pachyderm had touched the screen with her trunk - and taken a picture of herself.

Events manager Scott, of Birmingham, said he has now got the world's only elephant selfie - or 'elfie'.

The 23-year-old said: ''I live quite close to the park so I've been there a few times. The elephants are my favourite along with tigers.

"Me and a friend were driving past the elephant enclosure, I took a few pix of me with one of the elephants.

Latabe the elephant

"But when I turned back around I hit my phone on the side of the car door and it fell down onto the grass.

"The elephant was all over it, I think he thought it was food. I didn't dare get out the car to get it. I just drove to one of the workers I could see and he went to get it.

"I really couldn't believe when the iPhone came back, I pressed the centre button to check it was still working and wow there it was - me and my friend were in shock.

"The elephant had taken two pictures, but the second isn't very good. I have shown everybody the elephant selfie, and they all love it."

The 'elfie' was taken as Scott visited the park on the Bank Holiday Monday, while the park was packed with people eager to see the new baby elephant.

Andy Plumb, head keeper, said: "I saw the young man drop the phone, I waved him on. He started to drive towards us so I went to retrieve it.

"Lots of people have dropped their phones at our park but I've never seen anything like this. What a picture, we're very proud of Latabe."

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