I know, I know... I didn't believe it either until I saw the photographs. I personally flew out to the Calgary Huskar Archives and scanned these originals because the old b/w photographs don't do it justice.

So the story goes...

In 1936 a scouting detachment of the Calgary Huskars was on maneuvers in Peru. (at the time a Canadian colony in the midst of rebellion)

I'll let the journal of Captain C. Horton speak of the incident:

"We had quite a row with the porters and they abandoned us to the mountain so it was just us against that fickle harlott mother nature. Lost and preparing to sup with some tea and marmalade we saw what appeared to be a dimunitive orphan tank following with obvious affection quite a large female elephant!

We hushed Captain Shellhorn who loved to blather on and sing while cooking, but it seems that the damage was done--for the magnificent elephant startled and turned towards us defensively

What happened next--quite sad yet extraordinary. For Lo! In defense of its adopted mother, the little tank gently touched its muzzle to the trunk of its guardian as if in farewell--and then charged.

We had no choice but to dispatch the poor thing.

Sadly our long rifles did little to stop it and we had to eventually just bludgeon it to death with our pots and pans. The mother elephant just watched the affair with a dignified sadness, and then left to rejoin her herd.

Another little one--this time an actual elephant rejoined her from the bush and they walked off into the sunset. A sad story but what a prize! I have a spot over the mantle where the tank's head will sit proudly!"

So yeah... A bit of a sad story but I feel it bears retelling. I'm constantly surprised by how much heart tanks have. Elephants too, I guess. While recent scientific evidence has disproved any chance that elephants and tanks are even remotely related, apparently love knows no boundaries. I think we can all learn from this.

--Contributing Journalist Thug Rigby