Elephant Selfie: Elephant Grabs Tourist’s GoPro To Take ‘Elfie’

by Olivia Truffaut-WongMay 26, 2015, 8:56 pmNews, News Feed >

Christian LeBlanc was feeding elephants in Thailand when an elephant took his GoPro and took an ‘elfie’ – an elephant selfie.

Elephant Selfie: Christian LeBlanc’s ‘Elfie’ Goes Viral

LeBlanc, 22, a UBC student who has been documenting his travels in Asia on Instagram using his GoPro camera, recently shared an elephant selfie, featuring himself smiling next to a large elephant, that he claims was taken by the elephant itself.

“I see a sign that for 50 cents you can feed the elephant. So my girlfriend and I go and buy a basket of bananas and we start feeding the elephant. The elephant loves the bananas, so it kind of gets a bit nosy – it grabs at your hands, it tries to take all the bananas. And once we ran out, next thing I knew it was grabbing the GoPro,” LeBlanc recalled in an interview with CBC news.

The elephant grabbed the GoPro in its trunk and waved it around in the air, by chance taking a selfie photo with LeBlanc. “Next thing I knew, [the elephant] grabbed my GoPro by the mount and I got the selfie of a lifetime, which I can’t take full credit for,” LeBlanc told CNN.

Though the incident occurred about two months ago, LeBlanc only recently posted the selfie, which he called an ‘elfie,’ on his Instagram account and the photo quickly went viral. “Let’s get this Elfie on Ellen Degeneres,” LeBlanc joked when he posted the ‘elfie’ on May 19.

Let’s get this Elfie on Ellen Degeneres! #ElfieOnEllen @theellenshow

A photo posted by Christian LeBlanc (@christian_leblanc) on May 19, 2015 at 7:16am PDT

LeBlanc warned any jealous adventurers that his elephant selfie was taken completely by chance, saying, “I guess Id’ really like to emphasize that if anyone’s interested in doing the things I’ve done, I can’t guarantee an elephant selfie, but it’s very easy to make it to this side of the world.”

While LeBlanc continues on his travels, he is also trying to spark a campaign to get his unique photo on The Ellen Show. Not only did his original caption mention getting the ‘elfie’ on Ellen, on Tuesday LeBlanc posted a re-imagining of Ellen DeGeneres’ epic Oscar selfie, this time featuring himself and the elephant.

Yo Ellen, I’m really happy for you, Imma let you finish, but this is the best selfie of all time. #elfieonellen @theellenshow

A photo posted by Christian LeBlanc (@christian_leblanc) on May 26, 2015 at 10:45am PDT

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.