Remember wild animals are wild, even if they are in refuges

Nothing is more likely to make a tourist behave stupidly than an interaction with a wild animal.

Over the holidays I watched a video of a family of imbeciles feeding a wild moose, who promptly head-butted a young child.

And earlier this week a "stressed" elephant killed a Spanish tourist during a "bathing session" at a Thailand elephant sanctuary, news portal Travel Mole reported.

The 23-year-old woman was hit by the "panic stricken" animal’s trunk, police said.

It happened at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre in Phang Nga province.

“A female tourist was killed while bathing an elephant,” police chief Jaran Bangprasert said.

Spanish media identified the woman as Blanca Ojanguren García.

She was in a group of about eight tourists at the sanctuary when it happened.

Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said his country's consulate in Bangkok was assisting a Spanish family.

The elephant sanctuary offers various ‘elephant care’ packages which include bathing, walking and preparing food and feeding the elephants.

Deaths by wild elephants are relatively common but rare in elephant refuges and sanctuaries.