http://www.news24.com/Green/Ne...ll-elephant-20140101



Anger over KNP decision to kill elephant
2014-01-01 13:19



Mbombela - Several people have reacted with outrage at the Kruger National Park's decision to kill an aggressive elephant bull that attacked a couple on Monday.

"It was completely unnecessary to kill the elephant bull that damaged a car and injured a person yesterday in the Kruger Park. SANParks must provide us with the details of who took this decision and on what management level this utter stupid decision was taken," Robbie Botes wrote on the park's Facebook wall on Tuesday, a Sapa correspondent reported.

Lous-Roger Higham wrote: "There are no credentials necessary to state the elephant should not have to be killed, its (sic) their land, we are the intruders!"

Morne Theron however agreed with the decision.

"We do 'visit' their land, however I am sure the correct channels where followed to authorise the 'kill'. We still as visitors require a safe park to visit, and it is sad but the bull would have probably done it again."

Attack

A couple was injured when an elephant bull attacked their car near the N’waswitshaka water hole, south of the Phabeni tarred road.

"The elephant was walking in front of the couple’s vehicle whilst they were videoing it from behind for a period of time and it suddenly stopped, turned around and rapidly walked towards the vehicle which was stationary at that time," park spokesperson William Mabasa said.

"The elephant charged at them, attacked the vehicle and flipped it over off the road into the thick bushes."

A passing motorist came to their aid. The Pretoriuskop section ranger was alerted and informed the park's operational commander.

A helicopter was dispatched to the scene and airlifted the couple to the Skukuza camp to for medical treatment. After being stabilised, they were flown to the Medi-Clinic private hospital in Mbombela.

Mabasa said the woman was seriously injured when one of the elephant’s tusks ripped open the back of her thigh. The male tourist suffered minor injuries.

"The bull elephant was euthanised and upon inspection it was discovered to have been in musth which is probably the reason the aggression levels were higher," Mabasa said.

He said the elephant's aggression was also caused by an injury he had suffered.

Nelspruit Medi-Clinic spokesperson Berdine Malan said the woman was in a stable condition.

"The patient is stable and recovering in a general ward. By Thursday the doctor will decide when she can be discharged from hospital."

At the time of enquiry, the couple's identity was being withheld until their families had been informed.

SANParks spokesperson Ike Phaahla said the elephant bull had to be put down because it had shown such aggressive behaviour before and posed a safety threat to other tourists.

"The elephant had to be put down. Since it was in its musth phase, the elephant had gotten into a fight with another dominant bull before and was very aggressive," Phaahla said.

- SAPA

Another bunch of ignorant idiots equating animals to people!

The same types that would apparently rather see the parks entire ecosystem changed due to the deforestation caused by way TOO many elephants, rather than allow an elephant cull to keep their numbers in check. Anti-gun and anti-kill nuts are all the same, you cannot rationalize with them because they are not rational and do not have deep thoughts. Life for them is governed by emotion instead of common sense and reason.

Said, once again you are Spot On!

I am on faculty at a University and there are so many seemingly intelligent people who think this way. Its funny in a way, but sad as well...

You need to see the car though TRASHED !!
Very happy I wasn't in that car.

Welcome to the world -- the real world, not the Disney world.

A good trophy fee gone to waste.

i wonder if the elephant got sensitivity training the greenies would be happy. on second thought Naa just get a car load of cry baby greenies to go out and pet the poor misunderstood elephant

http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...ational-park/5200028



Video of the elephant attack.

Thank you Kathi.

Why didn't the idiots back off and give him some room when he let them know he was tired of being followed so close? They had abundant opportunities to clear the area, but I guess those extreme close-ups were real important.

The jackasses in the car killed that elephant as sure as if they pulled the trigger. Should have to pay the trophy fee.

When you see the video, it is obvious that the tourists continued to "dog" the elephant until it had had enough. The elephant would move forward and then they would move forward. The elephant did what any elephant in musth would likely do. And, when the elephant walked back towards the car, the fools continued to just sit there instead of getting the hell out of the situation. You can also see that the elephant was initially walking away, so it didn't appear to be aggressive. And, when it approached the vehicle coming back it did not suddenly charge. I say they got what they deserved. Unfortunately, the elephant got what he didn't deserve. I've been in Kruger and I have seen with my own two eyes the utter and complete stupidity of most people around wild and dangerous game.

Evidently, whoever was driving that little VW did not understand that in A wildlife area ANIMALS have right of way...

quote:

Originally posted by Russ Gould:
A good trophy fee gone to waste.

Yup.

quote:

When you see the video, it is obvious that the tourists continued to "dog" the elephant until it had had enough. The elephant would move forward and then they would move forward. The elephant did what any elephant in musth would likely do. And, when the elephant walked back towards the car, the fools continued to just sit there instead of getting the hell out of the situation. You can also see that the elephant was initially walking away, so it didn't appear to be aggressive. And, when it approached the vehicle coming back it did not suddenly charge. I say they got what they deserved. Unfortunately, the elephant got what he didn't deserve. I've been in Kruger and I have seen with my own two eyes the utter and complete stupidity of most people around wild and dangerous game.

Agree 100%, justified attack as far as I am concerned. Should have punished the tourists for thier stupidity vs. putting the elephant down. As mentioned above, what a waste of a trophy fee.

The people in the car were of course entirely in the wrong esp as the KNP even provides plenty of info & advice about animal behaviour etc & instruction to not get too close to the animals & they always have right of way but that said, there's no doubt whatsoever the behaviour patterns of the park animals has changed dramatically over the years which is probably due to factors such as ever increasing poaching & (esp in the case of the large predators) the ever increasing flow of illegal immigrants walking through the park.

There's also the issue of the overpopulation of elephants also making them feel pressured which also results in their excessively arsey behaviour.

What's really needed is a good, hard cull of elephants, poachers & illegal immigrants in the park!

While I always regret a loss of human life or injury, I think we go overboard sometimes. If a hunter is killed or injured, it is tragic, but they were doing what the wanted to be doing and we should consider it in that light.

When an idiot gets himself injured being stupid, like pushing a bull elephant after warnings, it's kind of a Darwin moment.

Shouldn't we put the people down instead of the elephant?

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...ational-park/5200028



Video of the elephant attack.

I tried to watch the video but when i hit the start button, a message popped up and said the video was private. oh well....

There are no medicine for stupidity or muti to beef up common sense.

The kind of things that RSA citizens are doing around wildlife amazes me, they have all the opportunity to learn about wildlife behaviour and the still mess up, just listen to the conversation on the video, that is to say if you can understand Afrikaans. The woman calling the elephant's tusk a thing.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...ational-park/5200028



Video of the elephant attack.

I tried to watch the video but when i hit the start button, a message popped up and said the video was private. oh well....

Try this one.

A waste of an elephant, killing it has not benefited anyone or conservation. Yes the Kruger needs to get rid of a lot of Elephants, but not in this manner or reason

Another great example of the price of ignorance!! Almost as interesting is that before seeing the bulls aggression on the blue car, the group of idiots behind almost joined the party!! Reminds me of many of the tourists in YNP that get right on top of the bison.