I guess elephant find tailgating as offensive as many drivers. I am certainly glad that most hunting videographers have better command of their cameras than the person filming this.

Apparently those in that car are very upset someone actually filmed them, and did not help save them.

How they expect anyone to interfere in the fight with the elephant is anyone's guess!

Thanks for the early chuckle Mike!

You would think they would be smart enough to give dumbo a little more space.

I have no sympathy for people like that and they got what they deserved.

Has nobody asked why there was no attempt by the driver to avert the final outcome by reversing out and away from the impending danger?

Sheer stupidity has its just rewards!

According to the UK press, she was in a hire car & couldn't find reverse gear...... every time she thought she had it, she'd let the clutch out & find it was in 1st....... hence the continuous invasion of the elephant's fight zone.

Hope she'd paid the accident waiver insurance!

Oh yeah, I forgot - the elephant was judged as being the guilty party and given a death sentence but from the footage did not show signs of being an animal with an aggressive disposition until he got pestered and for all we know and I'm willing to bet, the driver was quite likely hooting so they could get frontal photos!

quote:

According to the UK press, she was in a hire car & couldn't find reverse gear

BS - She was purposely following it at a short distance as it was walking ahead of the vehicle.

She should not have been driving the car without being fully familiar with the gear shift and as most of us who are knowledgeable of manual gearboxes, you will never find the first gear near the reverse.

I also have my suspicions about her excuse but that said, if it was a VW, reverse is (IIRC) next to 1st but you either need to pull up a lever just below the knob of the gear lever or push down & across.

ADDED

Just checked with SWMBO and reverse on our (SA) VW Polo was push down and to the far left so next to 1st.

guess the driver's story isn't impossible but have to say, it sounds a bit dubious to me unless of course she was such a bad driver, she shouldn't have been on the road at all..........

I find the behavior of the crowd in the filming car much more aggregious than that of the tailgater, who I'll give the benefit of the doubt to and accept her story. That sort of thing can happen with rentals, especially in a stressful situation.

But those filming it acted like morons.

Steve,
I think the only one not a moron in that video was the elephant.
Did they really destroy that elephant for that? They should have given him a medal!
When we were touring Kruger years ago a leopard attacked a jeep jockey and had to be put down. Idiot was chasing it around a parking lot until it finally had it's fill of him.

That's why I only drive auto tranny
Ever since I discovered America and found out there is automatic transmission in cars, life took on brighter turn
See what you get with them damn stick shifts?

Almost sounds like students in the car and the cussing going on is just tremendous.

The elephant was destroyed for being in musth and for being an elephant.

Same happened with 3 lionesses a few years back that ate a few Mozambicans illegally crossing into South Africa. In stead of getting heartburn medication and a medal they each got the death penalty. So sad.

THE FACTS: Humans harass an elephant. The elephant behaves totally consistent with being an elephant. The elephant is killed and the greenies think that is good, but that any elephant killed by a hunter is bad.

I've given up on my species. We belong in the trees eating bananas.

Stupid city slickers with no clue about the wild environment or the animals!

Did I hear the car horn?

I have see stupid behaviour in Indian sanctuaries but it always lead to animals being scared away. I still curse the guys who chased away & spoiled my first tiger sighting!

quote:

I've given up on my species. We belong in the trees eating bananas.

Why punish the primates because of our stupid behavior?

The folk in the car filming the incident, apart from the one male who just wanted to film the situation, were very much aware of the potential danger, especially the women. They just wanted out. The swearing is quite logical in those circumstances, the young women, traumatised by what they were seeing.

The blue car does indeed look like a VW Polo which is a common hire car in SA and assuming they haven't changed it in later models to the one I had, reverse is located by pushing the gear lever down, far left % forward so next to 1st gear and at +/- 0.28 on the video, it looks to me like the reversing lights come on so there may be some truth in the driver's claims.

As for the people in the car, about the only thing I can see they did wrong was pig poor camera work and a degree of needless panic on the part of the women.

I'm not sure if I hear a hoot or a whistle or just a feminine squeal about half way through but quite honestly, I don't think it matters much. Firstly, it had no effect on the elephant and secondly such sounds are an accepted method to distract elephants and other game.

As for should they have shot the elephant? - Possibly not because the elephant was just being an elephant and he can't be blamed for that but that said, the KNP's elephant population is FAR too big for it's carrying capacity and having done this once, there's probably a goodish chance he'll possibly play the same game again so he becomes a prime & logical candidate for culling...... especially in a park that has a lot of motor traffic etc.

"But those filming it acted like morons.".

Steve if you don't mind please explain the above mentioned words that you have posted, since I fail to understand what you trying to implicate.

quote:

Originally posted by Anton van der Spek:
"But those filming it acted like morons.".

Steve if you don't mind please explain the above mentioned words that you have posted, since I fail to understand what you trying to implicate.

Anton

Just for the sake of clarity can I point out your comment refers to SteveGI & not to me.

quote:

Originally posted by Anton van der Spek:
"But those filming it acted like morons.".

Steve if you don't mind please explain the above mentioned words that you have posted, since I fail to understand what you trying to implicate.

I just thought they panicked and scrambled to get the hell out of there when they were in no immediate danger - though someone else clearly was; a reaction that I think is all too common in today's "don't get involved" world.

Might they have intervened and somehow mitigated the situation? I think so. How? I'm not sure, but I expect there were a couple of options ...

... and rather than get into a pissing contest about whether or not they acted like morons, I'd prefer to explore what those other options might have been.

(and yes, please don't mistake my comments for Shakari's ... and vice-versa )

Regardless, they crowded that elephant too close and got rolled for it.

Far as missing, or not being able to find reverse. Hey, it can happen to anyone. I was familiar with an auto console shift I was driving. Pulled up to a stop sign and couldn't see traffic, so I pulled up a bit more til I could. Here came a p/up that was headed right at me. I hit neutral, by then it was too late and he whacked me. Of course I got the ticket for 'obstructing traffic". It was sorted out in court that was a dangerous intersection and orders were passed to remove a big pile of dirt that was too close to the corner to see around w/o pulling out too far.
I barely had time to try once and missed reverse. Seeing the size of this elephant compared to the blue car I can understand how she'd not find the right gear. Though she shouldn't have crowded the animal in the first place. I'll bet it won't happen again.
George

An elephant in close proximity. If it was up to me to figure it out; they failed.

I like bananas, especialy the little ones. I don't climb trees well, though.

1. not everybody is elephant experts
2. they were tourists if im not mistaking
3. with all the programs on tv these days some people think that you can go close to them because they wont harm you . on discovery all the guys go straight into the animals space
4.I think that is also why people think that hunting is just walking up and killing the animal
5. the specific elephant has challenged vehicles before
6.YOU GET PLENTY IDIOTS IN THE KRUGER WITH NO RESPECT FOR THE ANIMAL OR FELLOW VISITORS . YOU WILL KNOW WHAT I MEAN IF YOU GET TO A LION KILL SIGHTING IT LOOKS LIKE A TRAFFIC JAM IN A MAJOR CITY EVENTUALY YOU CANT MOVE

7.There is so many elephants that if they break the fence to go and raid crops the parks board just shoots them as chasing them back into the park does not work they get out the next day again