This is the bizarre moment a pair of ‘drunken’ elephants are seen staggering around a tea field before collapsing into a pile next to each other after raiding a nearby village.
The incident was captured by villagers in Yunnan, southwestern China who claim the elephants ransacked their grain alcohol store, drinking 30 litres of corn wine between them.
Photos of the drunken pair sleeping off the wine were shared by Zuzou Bingbing Travel Photography on Weibo, and found their way onto Twitter amassing over 140,000 likes.
Villagers in the county of Menghai in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, claim the couple were just two of the 14 Asian elephants who broke in to their grain alcohol stores before fleeing for the tea field.
After seeing the images on Twitter officials in Yunnan revealed that the incident took place last summer and the photos in fact featured sober elephants stopping for a ‘rest’.
Sharing adorable footage of the sober beasts resting against each other Long Yunhai, deputy director of the Menghai Forestry and Grassland Administration, said that the photos showing so-called ‘drunk elephants’ were ‘not true’.
A pair of ‘drunken’ elephants were snapped staggering around a tea field, by villagers in Yunnan, southern China who claim the elephants ransacked an alcohol store
Villagers in the county of Menghai in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, claim the couple were just two of the 14 Asian elephants who broke in to their grain alcohol stores
The group of elephants had visited a tea plantation and two of them were filmed with a drone as they lay down to rest
He said in a statement: ‘The activity seen in the images did not appear within our county.
‘There have indeed been recent reports of 14 Asian elephants entering villages and damaging vats of grain alcohol, but whether they drank any alcohol is hard to determine.’
In a separate report, the administration said the herd of 14 elephants had entered county territory on 9th March and visited two village homes on March 11 and 14.
The raid: 14 elephants can be seen going to town on the gain alcohol store, reportedly in the county of Menghai, Southern China
Leaving a mess strewn across the floor the elephants made their way through the store devouring the potentially alcoholic grain
Villagers Li Yuncong and Wang Xiangdong both reported damage to corn storage vessels and grain alcohol vats, as well as solar panels, windows and doors.
However, no villagers were injured during the incidents.
This week forestry authorities in Jiangcheng Hani and Yi Autonomous County in the tea-growing city of Pu’er, which is about 185 miles from Menghai County, also claimed the incident took place within its jurisdiction on July 15 last year.
The authorities claimed the group of elephants had visited a tea plantation and two of them were filmed with a drone as they lay down to rest.
Pu’er officials said none of the elephants were drunk.
The elephant can be seen flopping over after struggling to sit up straight. Photos of the drunken pair sleeping off the wine were shared to Twitter amassing over 140,000 likes