"Newborn elephants, like Kirby, are born with their eyes open," Rob Bernady, elephant curator at the zoo, told Chron. "This is because an elephant calf needs to keep up with their herd quickly.

We stared at each other for what felt like eternity. The bull was so close that I could only see his right eye. It dawned on me then that the elephant was probably going to kill me and there was ...