The Zimbabwean website:

Parks ranger killed whilst shooting elephant for rations.( 12-05-07)

On Friday morning (4th May) a young PH (Professional hunter) was traveling through Gona Re Zhou from his safari camp in the hunting concession, a few KM before Chipinda Pools senior ranger Admire, who he was familiar with stepped out and flagged him down. Admire came up to the vehicle and asked him for some solid .375 bullets, the PH said that he only had .458 caliber rounds, Admire then said that he had a serious problem because he had been out shooting rations when he wounded a large bull elephant. The PH then said that he with his client would be happy to assist and follow up the wounded animal and dispatched it for him. Admire refused the offer and said that he would go to Malalangwe HQ some 30KM away and get some ammunition. With this the PH continued on his way to Chiredzi.

That afternoon when on his way back to his camp he was stopped at Chipinda Pools by Warden Madhawu, the Warden asked for help as one of his staff had been killed by an elephant and needed to be collected out of the bush and taken to Chiredzi mortuary. The young PH agreed to help and was directed to the accident site where he found Sen. Ranger Admire dead with a large wound in his midriff, it was obvious that the bull elephant had charged and killed him then going on a short distance and succumbing to bullet wounds, the animal was a very large bull with (estimated) 70 lb tusks.

The Ph collected the body and delivered it to the mortuary in Chiredzi as the Warden said that they were without transport.

These are very suspicious goings on, as Nation Parks staff are not allowed to shoot rations in a Nat / Park let alone a 70lb bull elephant. Further more if a ranger was sent out to shoot an elephant for rations, he surely would have a means of bringing between 4 and 5 tons of meat back to HQ. and why shoot a large tusker anyway. The whole situation in Gona Re Zou stinks of corruption and needs to be investigated thoroughly by an independent body.

Stink is hardly the word.

Good riddens.

You would be surprised how many animals are shot for National Park rations in Zim today.
Note how I stated shot and not killed.
I was once told by a AK47 armed Ranger "It is all is bullet placement"
ozhunter

quote:

Originally posted by ozhunter:
You would be surprised how many animals are shot for National Park rations in Zim today.
Note how I stated shot and not killed.
I was once told by a AK47 armed Ranger "It is all is bullet placement"
ozhunter

"It is all is bullet placement"

I heard that from a fellow bragging about a 45-70 also.

As I recollect wasn't the 7x57 used rather extensively (and presumably successfully) by a certain well know elephant hunter?
Peter.

Since we moved the PH proficiency exam to charara five years ago, we have only shot one elephant on those exams that was not carrying lead- mostly AK. The most we have recovered is 29 AK bullets out of one ele. Several of the buff taken have also been wounded.

Come on, it was rations, 70lbs of ivory to be sold on the black market too support his family

Elephant tramples game scout to death

Herald Reporters

A CHIREDZI game scout, who in the company of his two workmates, allegedly tried to kill a wounded elephant with a rifle in Gonarezhou National Park last week, paid with his life after the cornered jumbo charged at him and trampled him to death.

In a related case, a Chirundu man was trampled to death by an elephant in a bush after he had gone fishing along the Zambezi River last week.

The wounded elephant reportedly charged and caught up with Admire Kayungwa (37) of Chipinda Pool Campsite in Gonarezhou after he had shot it twice with a 375 heavy barrel rifle. He was with two workmates — Mr Patilela Makondo and Mr Chanavela Hahlani — when the incident occurred.

Kayungwa’s body was only retrieved by his two workmates after they had continued shooting the jumbo until it dropped dead close to where it had trampled their colleague.

Masvingo police spokesman Inspector Phibion Nyambo yesterday said an inquest into Kayungwa’s death has opened.

His body was taken to Chiredzi District Hospital.

It is reported that on the fateful day, Kayungwa established that there was a wounded elephant at Chipinda Pools that had been seriously injured during a fight with another elephant.

The trio went into Gonarezhou National Park in search of the wounded elephant, which they wanted to kill since it was badly injured in the fight.

They came across the elephant which was hiding in the bush and started shooting at it prompting it to flee. They tracked it and caught up with the animal and continued firing shots at it in an attempt to kill it.

However, the elephant got incensed and charged at the three game scouts forcing them to flee. It gave chase and caught up with Kayungwa and trampled him.

Inspector Nyambo warned game scouts and professional hunters against daring wounded wild animals, especially elephants and buffaloes, saying they were extremely dangerous and posed serious threats to human life especially if they were provoked.

Rogers Dzikamunhenga (53) of Sugar Estates in Chirundu had gone fishing on Monday afternoon when he met his fate.

He did not return home prompting relatives and neighbours to search for him the following day.

They found his crushed body lying in a bush two days later.

Dzikamunhenga’s right leg was found several metres away from the rest of his body, while his stomach was ruptured.

Mashonaland West police spokesperson Inspector Paul Nyathi urged people to be cautious when moving in areas with wild animals.

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
Elephant tramples game scout to death

Herald Reporters

A CHIREDZI game scout, who in the company of his two workmates, allegedly tried to kill a wounded elephant with a rifle in Gonarezhou National Park last week, paid with his life after the cornered jumbo charged at him and trampled him to death. He did not return home prompting relatives and neighbours to search for him the following day.

They found his crushed body lying in a bush two days later.

Dzikamunhenga’s right leg was found several metres away from the rest of his body, while his stomach was ruptured.

Mashonaland West police spokesperson Inspector Paul Nyathi urged people to be cautious when moving in areas with wild animals.

Obviously he was up to no good if his mates took off and did not say anything or try to assist further. His family went looking for him.

Regardless that's a gruesome way to go. Pinned and pulled apart like a smoked turkey.

Serves him damn right if they were poaching. hopefully it will serve as a lesson to others.