Elephant kills Vic Falls head guide
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 18 June 2011 21:59

By Dusty Miller

TRAGEDY struck at Victoria Falls Safari Lodge June 8, when the head guide at
the award-winning Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, Tendekai Madzivanzira was
killed by a bull elephant in full musth (ready for breeding.)

Madzivanzira, who was armed with a rifle and had years of experience, had
escorted an international guest from the hotel to the nearby Siduli Hide at
4pm. The hide is close to a waterhole frequented by a variety of game and
while the guest was inside the hide, a number of animals visited the water
hole, including the bull elephant.

The bull chased off another four elephants that were drinking and, after
some time, the bull started to move off. It was about 6pm, while
Madzivanzira was escorting his guest back to the lodge, that the bull
spotted them and began to charge.

According to the unnamed guest, Madzivanzira grabbed her arm and told her to
run but by this stage the elephant was too close. Madzivanzira then told her
to climb a nearby tree and stumbled as he turned to face the elephant as he
fired his weapon. The elephant hit the guide tossing him to the ground.

Efforts by observers and staff whistling and shouting from the lodge’s
balcony to try to distract the charging bull were fruitless. The elephant
eventually ran off and staff members and a medical team were on site to
rescue the guest from the tree and attend to Madzivanzira, who was fatally
wounded.

Senior management from Victoria Falls Safari Lodge and experienced wildlife
experts, in co-ordination with National Parks and Wildlife and ZRP, were
called to secure the area and conduct further investigations.

“This is the first time in the 17 years of the lodge being open that
something like this has happened and as much as we train our staff for a
worst case scenario when living in the bush with wild animals, you still
never think an incident like this is ever going to take place.

“Tendekai was a skilled professional who had the respect of his wildlife
peers and conservation colleagues, along with all clients, staff, and the
community as a whole” Ross Kennedy, Africa Albida Tourism’s chief executive
said.

Counselling for guide’s family
Once news of the incident had reached the hotel owners, Africa Albida
Tourism’s head office by 6:30pm, various management staff were deployed to
assist with contacting family and immediate grief counselling of the guide’s
family and shocked guests.
While in transit to Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, Ross Kennedy, Africa Albida
Tourism’s chief executive, said: “It is a very sad and shocking thing to
have happened and we will do everything we can do to provide support for
Tendekai’s family. I’ve been told the staff at Victoria Falls Safari Lodge
have been amazing in dealing with the situation and I have to say a big
thank you to all of them.

I've heard there are teams of grief counselors to handle any contingency.

The A Team is for elephant victims that are pretty much left intact ... No missing body parts.

The B Team is for counseling when the dead has been pretty much dismembered. Body parts can be found though they may be scattered over a wide
area.

The C Team consols the family whwn the dead are pretty mucg mutilated and disfigured beyond recognition.

And finally the D Team is used when the elephant has squished the lost soul into nothingness but for a blood stain in the dirt. The D Team is sometimes referred to as the Ain't No Need for Plastic Bags Team.

Will,

I think you are getting too sensitive in your old age. Try and take a more realistic outlook.

Cheers,

Mike

when i stayed there about 8 years ago, my PH and i were unable to get into our chalet for 2 hours because a young, feisty bull ele was browsing on the shrubry just outside our door. every time we approached the door with our bags, the bastard would run at us. he finally lost interest in intimidating us and moved off. found it was much more comfortable to view the wildlife at said waterhole at the terrace/bar located above it- the whole area had floodlights so it was easy to have a cool drink and watch the comings and goings below in total comfort AND safety. bet the tourist wished she had stayed out on the terrace too. seems from other postings here that tour/photo guides are having a bad year

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
I've heard there are teams of grief counselors to handle any contingency.

The A Team is for elephant victims that are pretty much left intact ... No missing body parts.

The B Team is for counseling when the dead has been pretty much dismembered. Body parts can be found though they may be scattered over a wide
area.

The C Team consols the family whwn the dead are pretty mucg mutilated and disfigured beyond recognition.

And finally the D Team is used when the elephant has squished the lost soul into nothingness but for a blood stain in the dirt. The D Team is sometimes referred to as the Ain't No Need for Plastic Bags Team.

moron ... punk.

Mistakes around elephants are often fatal.

At least this guide's mistakes only got him killed and not the tourist in his charge.

He showed courage in thinking of the tourist before himself.

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
I've heard there are teams of grief counselors to handle any contingency.

The A Team is for elephant victims that are pretty much left intact ... No missing body parts.

The B Team is for counseling when the dead has been pretty much dismembered. Body parts can be found though they may be scattered over a wide
area.

The C Team consols the family whwn the dead are pretty mucg mutilated and disfigured beyond recognition.

And finally the D Team is used when the elephant has squished the lost soul into nothingness but for a blood stain in the dirt. The D Team is sometimes referred to as the Ain't No Need for Plastic Bags Team.

Totally inappropriate and uncalled for. What a dufus.

Agree. An attempt at humor that absolutely falls flat in my opinion. A very inappropriate response to a terrible accident.

Truly a terrible event. We may never know exactly what let to the guides demise, but one tghing is for sure - the man is a hero for putting his client's life before his!

However, I am curious as to what claiber rifle he was carrying the for some reason failed to stop the raging-bull.

Again, the guide did save the client's life while sacrificing his own! Prayers go out to the family of the deceased.

JW

I just returned over the weekend from two months in Zimbabwe hunting with clients. I spent most of this time in the Matetsi Safari area not far from Vic Falls. This elephant, as of last week, has now killed two people.

High time for a PAC hunt if ever there was need for one!!!

should have been shot after the first victim. he has now obviously figured out that humans are easy to kill and won't stop.

.458 win...but he tripped as he turned to face the elephant and didn't hit it. As per instructions he was carrying the rifle with an empty chamber, and when things went wrong he did what was right 99% of the time- he got people out of the way and did everything possible to avoid shooting an elephant in a national parks area and infront of non hunting clients.

Too many employers figure (perhaps correctly) that firearms safety is more important than the guides life and either discourage or ban the Guide from carrying a rifle with a round in the chamber. In a country where work is hard to come by and there is no such thing as social security, the employer makes the rules.

I have personally picked up remains at two such fatal accidents when I was in Parks and it has convinced me of the wisdom of loading the rifle before I left the house and unloading it after the safari was finished. One Guide -Andy Francis - who got away with a 'chamber empty carry' dropped the elephant so close that it died with it's one tusk between his legs. Andy had seen the charge developing when the elephant was about 50m away but by the time he had unslung his rifle and chambered a round the elephant was on top of him. A week later he bought a .470 double...

The two that didn't make it both failed to get off a shot. Dennis Tom didn't even get the bolt closed.

Will your comments are so uncalled for, you may have hunted a bit and written some books but your comments leave little room for respect.

quote:

Originally posted by Manyathelo:
Will your comments are so uncalled for, you may have hunted a bit and written some books but your comments leave little room for respect.

Agree 100%. AR has a tendency to give "regulars" a pass when they say or do stupid shit. This should not be one of those times.

Sorry to hear that and the man did well to get his client out of harms way, which probably cost him his life.

Good point about keeping a round in the chamber. That's what I do when I hunt DG and why I like the Rugers. Their safety latch comes all the way over to block the firing pin and I feel secure carrying it fully loaded and ready to fire. My last PH didn't believe in keeping a round in the chamber and he also had a Ruger. I thought that a little unusual at the time, but didn't question him about it. I have also seen two PHs leave the vehicle without their rifles and do some preliminary tracking of about 100 yards away from the vehicle. I did admonish them about that and told them that that was how Christo Kaiser (not sure if I spelled that right) was killed in Botswana. He left the vehicle without his rifle for a little close by scouting and ran into a elephant that chased him down killing him. He was unarmed. His tracker who was also unarmed escaped.

You guys need to cut Will some slack. He is in constant need of attention and reassurance "look at me! Look how experienced I am!". Like many abused children he simply can't help himself.

I have earned enuff respect for proper firearms safety from the three PH's I use most often, that my firearm is seldom without one in the chamber if in DG areas. I would not be comfortable without one in the chamber!

My double always has two in the chamber.

quote:

Originally posted by surestrike:
My double always has two in the chamber.

Great comment.

quote:

Originally posted by tendrams:

quote:

Originally posted by Manyathelo:
Will your comments are so uncalled for, you may have hunted a bit and written some books but your comments leave little room for respect.

Agree 100%. AR has a tendency to give "regulars" a pass when they say or do stupid shit. This should not be one of those times.

His arrogance knows no limit.

but, but .but, he is Will the great slayer of elephants. he is allowed to be an insensitize boor!

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:

quote:

Originally posted by tendrams:

quote:

Originally posted by Manyathelo:
Will your comments are so uncalled for, you may have hunted a bit and written some books but your comments leave little room for respect.

Agree 100%. AR has a tendency to give "regulars" a pass when they say or do stupid shit. This should not be one of those times.

His arrogance knows no limit.

You guys are like a bunch of old hens at the back fence. Get over it.

Not weeping at every incident of somebody getting whacked by dangerous game makes me different than the crowd I guess.

And my comments were not about the guide but the current practice of shirking any sort of responsibility by calling in the crisis counselors. Shit happens but it's okay if there are crisis counselors at hand to console the "community."

Crisis counselors? Give me a break. Every time some spoiled brat around my neck of the woods gets themselves dead from a head-on collision driving their new BMW we have to have crisis counselors. Their parents can cop-out because they have crisis counselors sent to their school.

The kid dies from a brain hemorrhage playing high school football after having recently been knocked out, suffering a severe concussion, while playing and we call in the crisis counselors. No point in changing the school rules to keep these kids from killing themselves. The school district administrators cover their ass by rolling out the crisis counselors.

Everyone that associates themselves with dangerous game takes the chance of getting killed. Not I as a hunter or the fellow that got killed were ever forced to take chances by hunting or protecting others from dangerous game. Hunters do it for the challenge. The Guides and PH's do it for money.

Are the hunters, guides, or PH's saints of some sort? The Public Broadcasting Corporation (PBS) is always portraying the people that climb mountains, sky jump, or kayak down some river as self-sacrificing heroes of some sort. Give me a break, again. They're just playing at some sport just like hunters and guides and PH's. If one of them gets killed is it really a national tragedy?

I feel sorry for the families that get left behind when guides, hunters, and PH's get killed or hurt on the "job."

Messing around with elephants can be dangerous. Lots of people get killed every year by elephants. If you think crisis counselors are going to change that, go ahead. The lodge seems to think so. Or, they pretend to think so.

If you want to weep uncontrollably, knock yourself out.

well, that pretty much says it all. thanks again Will for your valuable insight.

We all respond in different ways to a tragedy like this. It certainly pushes certain buttons for me, which I will leave out of my post, but I personally would just let comments by others pass for what they are worth.

I was struck by the fact that it took a hunt in Africa for me to appreciate just how dangerous -- and aggressive! -- elephants are in the wild. My PHs were very, very cautious, based on direct experience. Since then, everything written here about carrying loaded rifles makes absolute sense to me.

quote:

Originally posted by surestrike:
My double always has two in the chamber.

As soon as I start hunting, usually 100 yards from camp or so, DG or not, I have a round in the chamber and the rifle on safe. If I'm doing something really nudgy (climbing or sliding down a talus slope) I'll unload but that is the very rare exception. It's worked for forty six years, I figure it will work for the next 10 or 20 ...

Here is something that I should put to practice but for whatever reason have not done so.IMO,you should keep it loaded with solids and keep it with you in the tent,in the truck and always by your side in the field.Bad luck will strike when you slack on your defensess.Expect the unexpectable and never turn your back and let anything take up too much of your attention.

I don't know Shootaway, I have always hunted in North America and have never been around dangerous games other than from the other side of some sort of barrier/fence but I have always been taught never to ride around with a loaded gun inside the truck. With little room to maneuver inside the truck, you never know when the business end is going to be pointed in your direction especially if the situation is chaotic and everyone is scrambling out ala Keystone Cops. If you are in a truck why wouldn't you just drive away from whatever situation that would warrant a loaded rifle inside the vehicle?

I agree w/ Ganyana. I would rather face a court that a pissed off Ele w/ no round chambered. To go into DG country w/ no round chambered, to me is utter stupidity. I always tell my son that stupid will get you dead every time.

quote:

Originally posted by txlonghorn:
I don't know Shootaway, I have always hunted in North America and have never been around dangerous games other than from the other side of some sort of barrier/fence but I have always been taught never to ride around with a loaded gun inside the truck. With little room to maneuver inside the truck, you never know when the business end is going to be pointed in your direction especially if the situation is chaotic and everyone is scrambling out ala Keystone Cops. If you are in a truck why wouldn't you just drive away from whatever situation that would warrant a loaded rifle inside the vehicle?

That's what I thought but it seemed that I was the only one unloading mine.I wouldn't want to run into some elephants or armed poachers.

quote:

Originally posted by Will:

You guys are like a bunch of old hens at the back fence. Get over it.

No, we are people with some measure of good taste to avoid making some ham-fisted political/social statement about a news story reporting a serious incident.

Similar story ... similar sentiments:

"Afterwards, of course, there were endless discussions about the shooting of the elephant. The owner was furious, but he was only an Indian and could do nothing. Besides, legally I had done the right thing, for a mad elephant has to be killed, like a mad dog, if its owner fails to control it. Among the Europeans opinion was divided. The older men said I was right, the younger men said it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie. And afterwards I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant. I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool."

From "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell (1936): LINK

My two cents... I agree with with what " Will " has stated for the most part !

" WHY PLAY THE GAME " , if you don't enjoy the thrill of the moment..?

" WHY CARRY A FIREARM ".., if you don't associate some risk(s) involved .. ?

The guide " DID HIS JOB " .., For which I have the * Utmost Respect *

PAPI

Accordingly, a soldier choosed to "carry a rifle" therefore does not deserve our respect and admiration because he/she is "doing his job"? If he killed then that's what he gets for signing up for the "thrill"? Get over yourself. Will is a boor for saying what he did and no amount of backpedaling is going to smooth it over. The man was doing what he wanted/needed to do to make a living and was killed in an accident, saving a client's life in the process. There was no need to make light/fun of the incident.

Hunting is what I call a " GAME " like any other leasure pastime.

As far as I'm concerned , thats why its called " Big Game Hunting" or " Dangerous Game Hunting "

How many of you guys traveling to " Africa " to feed the family, back home ... ?
So, you like to play the game, as long as it's " FUN " and you don't get too many blisters, bumps or Tsetse Fly bites.

Okay,.. the guide wasn't hunting per say .. But, he was on the " Playing field ", doing what he was paid to do,.. by his own choice.

" War is War "
He wasn't drafted or forced into " servitude "!
Nothing even close to what your trying to compare

PAPI

It seems to me he was way more worried about not harming or being in the wrong for shooting the elephant then he was protecting himself and guest.

If he had time to shoo the guest to safety he had time to load, face the elephant and kill it.

But he did not have time to do both the guest would have lived and he would have lived if he would have just shot the elephant first.

When you live in or work in areas where self defense is not taken seriously this kind of thing happens.

Does not matter if you are dealing with 4 or two legged dangers. If you are more worried about what is going to happen if you shoot then shooting. One will get hurt or killed because you didn't shoot soon enough

As far as wills post.

It isn't nothing compare the humor emergency service personal use to cope the death they see regularly.

For you folks that don't deal with death a lot you need to lighten up.

I found the post funny.

But then I have seen a lot of death.

Hhmm let me lighten up and put my MD hat on and reread the post .... Um it's still not funny and most certainly inappropriate.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
For you folks that don't deal with death a lot you need to lighten up.

So now Will is a "death expert" who has seen more of the darker side of the world than the rest of us and gets to make light of it? I am sure this would fit his self-image (I am also sure he will be self-publishing a book on the topic soon) but MY God the shit is getting awfully deep in here!