Daredevil drunkard, 'braves' wild elephant

SRI LANKA: If a man is intoxicated by alcohol he could be either daring like a lion or be a chicken.

A highly intoxicated man, however, in this incident, was not a chicken but a 'roaring lion' attempting to pick a fight with a wild elephant in the Udawalawe National Park.

The tour by a local group of tourists had a  drunk man in the van. The highly intoxicated man confronted a wild elephant in a national park decided to antagonize an elephant as horrified onlookers stood by, reports Sri Lanka's Daily Mirror.

Video of the encounter shows members of the crowd shouting at the man to leave the elephant alone as it had killed a person only days earlier.

But ignoring their pleas, he begins taunting the angry creature by first lying down on a bank directly in front of it. The curious elephant looked frothing mad at him.

Despite the increasingly urgent cries from the crowd, he gets up and climbs down the bank until he stood in front of the animal challenging.

Suddenly, it loses its temper and rushes towards him raising its tail and flagging its big ears.

The man falls over and about to be trampled but the wild beast lost interest immediately wanders away.

The drunk man who saved his life 'luck by chance' was then pulled aside to the grassy bank and it appears as though part of his ear has been torn off and his once-muddy shirt is left covered in blood.

The footage was filmed in the Udawalawe National Park in Sri Lanka, where it's believed around 250 Sri Lankan Elephants - a species native to the country. It is also said that visitors are prohibited to get off their vehicle and wander in the park. How on earth the crowd had permission to walk in the park is still not probed.

A policeman also appears in the background of the video, though it is unclear if he arrested or intervened following the fight.