Is it possible for a Hoisting Crane to lift up an elephant?
The average weight for an African male elephant is around 6 tonnes so the crane needs an SWL (safe working limit) of 7 tonnes plus. Most cranes of this lift capacity are gantry cranes.
Why not? If one can lift tons of materials at once, then I'm pretty sure it can.
If you are able to put the elephant into a confined espace as a box, you will be safe, once the animal shall not panic, and if it does, it will not be able to jump out of a platform. As someone answered above, hoists and cranes have capacities much greater than the average weigh of an elephant, so, this is not a problem. The safe operation and risk analysis must happen carefully. Maybe the use of 2 hoitsts would be wise, as the animal could move inside the box and change the gravity center - if you are using one hoist, then, big chance of box or platform to loose estability. Now: it is not correct to say that most cranes at this capacities are gantries. It is true, though, that gantries can do the overheard cranes jobs.
I am not sure how the elephant would handle it. A couple of slings around the belly might injure it. It might mean a platform to lift the elephant standing on it, and there needs to be restraints to suit the strength of an elephant. What happens if the elephant gets upset or panics. The weight, maybe 4t. seems to be the least of your worries, in that plenty of hire cranes go well over that. Well I don't know what you mean by a hoisting crane. I would say only with a lot of knowledge about the elephant especially. This would be regarded as a hazardous task, and needs formal risk assessment and measures to reduce the hazard according to workplace legislation.
