Pachyderms outdo humans in one-sided eating competition

Three American "competitive eaters" have taken on three Asian elephants in a hot-dog-bun-eating competition in New York.

And they were genuinely surprised when they lost.

Juliet Lee, Gravy Brown and Eric "Badlands" Booker ate an impressive 143 buns in the allotted six minutes.



But circus jumbos Bunny, Susie and Minnie were not to be outdone, thrashing them more than three to one with a score of 505 buns at the inaugural Coney Island bun-eating contest.

George Shea, the chairman of Major League Eating seemed startled that the three-ton pachyderms beat his brave boys and girl. He said: "This was a great challenge for our species. I expected that the humans would beat them."

The elephants, who eat about 10 per cent of their body weight every day, up to 440lb (200kg), scooped up buns by the trunkful, leaving their nominal opponents eating little but their dust.