Spanish tourist killed by an elephant in Pilanesburg National Park, South Africa today.
Yet another naive tourist finds out the hard way the unpredictable nature of those gentle, friendly giants he watched on TV.

Did he think messing with elephants was similar to "running with the bulls" in Pamplona?

He didn’t listen.

Stupid, and got his dues!

We arrived at a farm in South Africa.

They bred lions, and the lions are tame.

They took us to get close to them in small ATVs.

Lions lying down looking at use from a few feet.

They told us not to leave the ATV.

We had no intention of doing so.

In the evening we were told an American woman was threatening to sue the farm.

Because she got out, and a lioness jumped on her.

No serious damage.

Watching National Geographic is great.

But one needs to have SOME intelligence!

Having been to Pilanesberg a couple of times, I can say the "guides" were both inexperienced idiots. One damn near got us hammered by elephants with her stupidity.

Also, they no longer carry guns.

The man, his fiancée and two women were driving their own vehicle in the reserve when they spotted three elephants and three calves, police said.

"Reports suggest that the man stopped the vehicle, alighted and went closer to the elephants to take pictures," police spokesman Sabata Mokgwabone said.

You would not believe how common this is. I live a couple hours drive from Yellowstone so we go there often and having people get close to animals to get a good selfie is a daily occurrence to the point thatit happens dozens of times a day. I am truly amazed at how tolerant the animals are but every now and then one of the animals have a bad day and the animal racks up another touron on their score board.

quote:

... three elephants and three calves ... alighted and went closer to the elephants to take pictures

Darwin Award winner.

Look on YouTube for a Japanese man who decided to get closer to a lion.

He did.

And became dinner.

Or the one who thought tigers are cuddly.

Jumped into its cage and ended up being dinner too.

I feel sorry for these people, although I admit it is difficult to do so.

Just unbelievable levels of sheer stupidity.

Play stupid games win stupid prizes

Blame it on Disney!

quote:

Blame it on Disney!

How very true!

I like Disney movies.

I think this is happening more often now because more people, basically ignorant people, go on safari.

I have been on photo safaris where visitors never left the camp!!

We had our own cars, and were the first out of camp in the morning, and last back after dark!

We used to get funny looks from them.

Heard on the radio of lions mating.

Went over to them.

Other tourists cars were there.

We were the only ones with cameras!

Everyone else was using their phones.

And one particular you lady was actually SLEEPING on the back of the truck??

Heard on the radio that we should avoid a certain location.

We asked why.

Were told one of the lions was wounded, and the vet wanted to tranquillize him to check his wound.

We asked if we could join them.

After a bit of discussion, and once they knew a few things about us, they agreed.

In fact, the vet rode in our truck.

Shot a tranquilizer at the lion from a few yards.

He ran off a bit and then went to sleep.

The would wasn’t bad, and did not need any attention.

It was fascinating my daughter stroking the lion with his eyes open!

Some of the stories they told us about some visitors are very hard to believe!!

We had a great tour of Pilanesberg some years ago, guided by our PH before going to his ranch. Had a lion walk out of brush right in front of car, saw cow and calf elephants up close. No way would we have approached an animal out of the vehicle. Avoidable tragedy! At PH's ranch, we did walk downwind of white rhino with PH behind us with his 416 Rigby. when we asked he said in now way would he put us in situation where he would need to shoot his pricy rhino. Great photos and thrilling moment.

Chris Rock said it best: "Tiger went Tiger"

https://youtu.be/kGEv5dC0lo4

Cow elephants with calves scare me more than anything, except maybe mambas, no, there are more elephant calves than mambas I think.

I've had some very lucky encounters, all interesting. No one died on either side thus far, but when you find yourself close to either a cow herd or even a single cow with a calf, it gets dicey and you don't want to have to kill her, but she isn't necessarily similarly inclined.

We have been living in Joburg since September and we have been out to Pilanesberg a number of times. I always see stupidity in it finest out there. Usually Europeans or Americans. Reminds me of Yellowstone. We recently returned from the Okavango Delta and while there had a young female with a calf charge us, but we had the distance and the foresight to safely get out of there and we had left ourselves an escape route.

The other evening I watched a program where Jim Shockey was interviewing Ivan Carter. All kinds of video clips were shown with him facing down elephants and even going into a pond with a hippo. I wonder how many casual viewers might be tempted to do the same stunt and end up ...

Ivan was and is a showman
Reminded me a bit Of Mark Sullivan ( Saeed’s old friend )
There is always time to have a little bit of fear in our souls…helps us to survive