Tom Siebel On Being Gored By An Elephant

Billionaires In Their Own Words
Tom Siebel On Being Gored By An Elephant
As told to Steven Bertoni, 09.23.10, 10:40 PM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated October 11, 2010

Once you get hurt you hear about all the other accidents on safari that nobody talks about.

A year ago . . . I was on safari in Tanzania with my wife and two daughters, and we had spent three days touring the Serengeti in the back of a Land Rover . . . seeing lots of animals, wildebeests, lions, zebra. . . . [My family was] quite jet-lagged and decided to take a day off. So I asked the guide if we could take a walking safari. . . . I showed up at 6:30 in the morning with my Nikon camera . . . and he [had] a double-barreled .470-caliber rifle and [said,] "I don't anticipate we'll have any problems, but if we get charged by an animal, it's very important that we stand our ground because if you turn and run we're going to get hurt because they chase things that run. . . ."

So, we . . . go out for a walk and in front of the lodge is a watering hole. . . . In the Serengeti [they] are pretty few and far between so they're pretty attractive features for migrating animals . . . and we came upon a herd of water buffalo . . . big and mean and kind of superbad looking, so we tiptoed around that . . . and about [15] minutes later, we came across a herd of elephants . . . about 200 yards away.

Understand, it's just daybreak, there's virtually no wind. It is very quiet, and we can clearly see . . . roughly 15 or 16 of them, half . . . juveniles and half . . . adult females . . . grazing the way they do and ripping branches off trees and stuff. . . . I'm not certain what happened. But, all of a sudden, one of the larger female elephants just spun around and sat on her haunches and put her trunk in the air and her ears out fully extended and just bellowed at us. I don't know if she could see us or smell us, but she pointed right at us. She paused for probably two seconds and then [made] a beeline right at us. So, this is 6 tons of elephant moving 30 miles per hour, and she could cover 200 yards in not much time. . . . And I would say about 4 yards in front of me the guide is standing there with his .470 double-barreled rifle. . . .

Let's put this in perspective: A .470 rifle is a large charge; it's almost the size of a roll of dimes. It's a side-by-side double-barrel rifle and [will] drop an elephant in its tracks. . . .

So, the animal is closing in and the guy doesn't shoot. Then 40 yards, and the guide doesn't shoot. This animal's now 20 yards [away], and the guide has not shot. At 10 yards he still hasn't shot, and this animal is closing in . . . like a Caterpillar ( CAT - news - people ) tractor coming at you. . . . I'd say the animal is 4 yards away and this guide then shoots and misses. It goes above its head. . . . Then the elephant came up to him and [with her] trunk . . . just threw him aside. I could hear the air decompress out of his body as the animal hurled him over maybe 10 yards to my right.

Then the animal continues up right in front of me, and I'm standing there . . . [It's] maybe 2 feet away, and it's just standing there. And I'll remember this instant until the day I die. And for three seconds--one, one thousand; two, one thousand; three, one thousand--the animal is standing there; I'm standing there. I can smell it . . . the pungent odor. . . . I can see the gray, the hair follicles . . . the eyeball, the trunk, the tusk, the foot--the whole thing. . . . And I was like, "Okay, what are we going to do now?"

And the animal then proceeds to kick my teeth in, basically. It knocked me to the ground with its trunk, it rolled me, punched me, put a tusk through my left thigh, gored it, then ripped it out sideways. It stepped on my leg, kicked my leg, broke six ribs and ripped up my shoulder. . . . I remember every instant of it . . . trying to protect my head with my arms. I remember the blows to my lower extremities, and it just hurt so bad I couldn't believe it. . . . Imagine what it's like taking an elephant tusk through the thigh . . . or hav[ing] a 6-ton animal step on your leg . . . It just snaps. . . . The pain was intolerable. . . . I had one thought: "Please, God, make this stop."

And after a while I looked up. . . . The dust is settled. The elephant's gone. Dead quiet in the Serengeti. . . . The guide is over there 12 yards [away], curled up in a ball, wrapped around [the] . . . rifle, playing dead. . . . Basically what happened is I got served up. So I said, "This might be a good time to reload." . . . He was virtually unhurt. . . . Then he called the lodge and brought out a [group] of pickup trucks and vehicles to surround me to keep the animals away. And I lay in the spot for three and a half hours. I was hurt, I couldn't move. My left thigh was just flayed wide open, my right foot was dangling on my leg, held on by two tendons and a flap of skin. . . .

[Finally,] they moved me into a pick-up truck, then the back of a tail-dragger Cessna with a couple of nurses on it . . . and flew to Nairobi. . . . When you're hurt pretty badly, I assure you a place like the Aga Khan [University] Hospital in Nairobi is a pretty scary place. I think they did the best job they could there. . . . They cleaned up the wound site, put a stabilizer on my leg, then gave us a nurse and we flew back to the United States . . . to San Jose. It was a 20-hour flight and . . . through some error or oversight . . . they packed [only] 10 hours of morphine . . . and 15 hours of fluids. . . . By the time I . . . arrived in San Jose, . . . I'd lost two-thirds of my blood. . . . They performed a bunch of surgeries, put me in an intensive care unit for days and days and days.

So here we are a year later, 16 surgeries later. I still have something on my leg called an Ilizarov external fixator [to mend, lengthen and reshape] the tibia . . . between your ankle bone and your knee. . . . They've taken a chunk of bone out of my pelvis about the size of your fist and moved it down into my ankle to try to get it all fused together. . . . The prognosis is that I'll be able to walk and run and ride a bicycle and play golf [again]. . . .

I [still] have the iPhone that was in my left front pocket that basically exploded . . . it's now in about 200 pieces. . . and I have been meaning to send it back to Steve Jobs for a refund.

Too bad Tom didn't have the double...I think he had enough balls to shoot it!

Maybe that's the difference between a PH and a photo-guide.

I spent some time with Tom earlier this year and he's recovering pretty well. He quit using a cane for walking in December (right before he was asked to go the coin flip for the Orange Bowl), which was significant because he still moves slowly and that's not good if you're on the sideline at a football game.
Anyway, he has had a load of operations and still loves time in the outdoors and hunting as much as he can.

That's a sobering story.

Maybe the elephants were just pissed that a bunch of water buffalo had come up from Australia and had taken over their water hole or something. Damn pushy Aussies!

Seriously, I'll bet some editor added the "water" to the text to let the "uninformed" know that American Bison don't live in Africa. I'm sure Tom knows the difference, even if the editor doesn't.

What an awful experience. Whatever happened to the "playing dead" guide who waited so long to shoot at first and wouldn't shoot the elephant off of Tom? Is he still guiding folks? I doubt he got much of a tip!

You hear about these tourists getting whacked on a regular basis. It is always some cowardly and/or untrained guide that either runs or freezes, and lets the photo safari tourist take the hammering.

I would never willingly put myself into a situation where I could not defend myself, and I hope I never do so by accident or bad luck. Even on a real safari, the PH could get mauled or killed, and saving him, yourself, and the trackers could well come down to personally keeping a cool head and making the shot.

Just another reminder of the old saying that when in elephant country, carry an elephant rifle.

I can tell you what would happen to the guide that didn't shoot if it were me that got gored.

Photo safaris aren't my bag, I don't think I want to be somewhere I have no protection and my thin red line is actually yellow. Are these photo ph's allowed to carry but aren't real guides so have no experience? amazingly bad idea.

Red

The guide in this story is a very experienced individual with a solid hunting background on him. The fact he was in a very......... high profile private reserve on the edge of the Serengeti, I am quite sure, played on his instinct to not shoot until the very last minute!

There are 2 sides to this story and the one recounted above is, IMHO, a bit unfair towards the guide.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:
The guide in this story is a very experienced individual with a solid hunting background on him. The fact he was in a very......... high profile private reserve on the edge of the Serengeti, I am quite sure, played on his instinct to not shoot until the very last minute!

There are 2 sides to this story and the one recounted above is, IMHO, a bit unfair towards the guide.

So what IS the other side to the story?

The fact is the guide failed to provide security for the people who were in his trust.

Getting hammered by a elephant, while the guide never fires a shot, IMHO, seems a bit unfair to the tourist.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:
The guide in this story is a very experienced individual with a solid hunting background on him. The fact he was in a very......... high profile private reserve on the edge of the Serengeti, I am quite sure, played on his instinct to not shoot until the very last minute!

There are 2 sides to this story and the one recounted above is, IMHO, a bit unfair towards the guide.

I ain't buying that. The guide apparently had plenty of time to shoot at least one warning shot before it was too late to kill it.

Believe what you want. Above is only the clients version.

Many years ago I took my wife on a photo safari in Wanke National Park, between hunting safaris. My rifles were not allowed in the park. One morning we were going to do a walking viewing with one of the local guides who was armed with a well worn .375H&H. When he took his rifle from the vehicle to begin the hike, it banged against the side of the truck and I saw a piece fall from the receiver. He hadn't noticed so I told him about it. He bent over and picked up the piece - possibly the safety - and put it back on the rifle. He than opened the glove box and removed three battered and corroded rounds of ammo that had been bouncing around loose for God only knows how long. I asked him if he thought the rifle would work and he seemed unconcerned. I'd like to say I cancelled the walk then and there, but I didn't. We did a brief walk - at my insistence it was very brief - and returned to camp. Fortunately we didn't come across any DG while out on that stroll and I can honestly say I have never felt so insecure while in Africa. I have no idea if that rifle would have fired or not.

If the same thing happened today, I would, without a doubt, immediately refuse to do the walk.

As for your comments, Bwanamich, there is no other side to the story, period. The guide failed in his primary responsibility which is to protect the health and safety of the clients.

Bottom line, the guide FAILED in protecting himself and his client.

No matter what actually happened, HE allowed his client to get seriously hurt.

I've been under one and walked away. The chances of surviving a full out elephant attack are about 10% according to Tony Sanchez A.
You never forget it!

Rich Elliott

I've been in open vehicles on "nighttime game drives" on four or five South African farms and reserves where the guide's rifle was tightly screwed into a rack between the front seat. When I asked if the rifle was loaded and if the man had fired it recently, he would smile and pull out a single, highly polished cartridge from his pants pocket and say it was all that had been issued to him. These were places where we drove across country right up to elephants, lions, buffalo, lions and out-of-the-water hippos.

Bill Quimby

In all my years of filming, I have seldom been far from a rifle carried by a man who knew how, and when to fire it. As I grew older, wiser, and had a few good scares, that seldom has turned into NEVER.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:
The guide in this story is a very experienced individual with a solid hunting background on him. The fact he was in a very......... high profile private reserve on the edge of the Serengeti, I am quite sure, played on his instinct to not shoot until the very last minute!

There are 2 sides to this story and the one recounted above is, IMHO, a bit unfair towards the guide.

With all due respect, sir, you could not be more wrong. The guide, and I use that term loosely here, had the sole and absolute responsibility to protect his client first, and himself second. He completely and totally failed on both counts, and only sheer luck allowed Mr. Siebel, or him, to live beyond that attack.

He failed, pure and simple, no more complicated than that.

Regardless, he is one lucky sucker. He better stick to kumputers. They don't bite.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:
Believe what you want. Above is only the clients version.

Bwanamich,

I'm not trying to start a fight or call you out, but if there is more to this that we have not heard, I would appreciate you telling the rest of the story.

We only have one version here, however without further clarification, it is not possible to draw any other conclusions.

I admire loyalty and willingness to stand by your friends, and if we aren't getting the whole story here, further details would go far in setting the record straight.

as soon as i was healed up
the "guide" would get an ass whoopin
that would do an elephant justice.

An cow elephant (in India) at less than 6 feet - 3 of them in fact - screaming and charging the jeep was some experience that I will never forget. I can still feel the heat, dust, pebbles and sheer tension of that incident more than 30 years ago. Yes we survived, with the elephants crossing behind the jeep & I was sitting in the back seat. My heart is now pounding as I type this!

No doubt the guide failed and is responsible. His job was to protect his client and his client was injured. You can't argue that he therefore failed to do his job.

But I guess the question about "fairness" is: hitting a charging elephant in the brain is a difficult task. I would bet that there were instances in which Karamojo Bell missed. So it's right to hold the guide responsible, but it's wrong to assume that he was incompetent just because he missed.

A more interesting question to me is whether he should have fired earlier, or attempted a "warning shot." I would bet that most guides and PHs are very reluctant to shoot until the last moment because: A.) there is a good chance the animal won't carry through; B.) the closer the animal is the higher the likelihood you'll hit the brain and stop it; and C.) the guy's probably been told that if he shoots and kills a charging elephant he'll lose his job unless six nuns witnessed the event and each swears on a stack of bibles that the client was about to be killed if he didn't shoot. I'm not making excuses for the guy, but I wouldn't heap a bunch of hate on him simply because he failed in his task. Nobody's perfect - even experienced and otherwise well-qualified guides and PHs.

Should he have fired a "warning shot" over the elephant's head at 40 yards? Or 20? At all?

Do we expect perfection from a guide or PH? Or do we take at least some responsibility for putting ourselves in dangerous situations? All of us should recognize that when we are out there we are taking a risk - no matter how qualified our guide or PH might be. And now and then a dangerous situation will develop and the guide or the PH will fail to protect us.

Thank you buffnut for seeing beyond the trees

Firstly, I do not know and have never met the guide. I do know off his reputation and experience in the dangerous game arena. I also have 2nd hand accounts from others that were present that day.

Alan, I am not going to challenge that report with facts from "my" side of the story. I have heard the same story from others that "were there". I would rather the guide did that himself if he so chooses. I wouldn't be suprised if he was bound to "silence" by a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement............ many such places as that private reserve do that as standard practice for any employee.


Also, don't discount that a warning shot was not fired!

Further, the guide did fire with the intent of killing the elephant with a shot aimed at the brain at very close quarters - that is recounted by Mr Siebel as well. I guess some of the AR experts would never miss under the same situation, right?

I am not arguing anywhere that the guide did not succeed in his primary role of protecting his client. But to allege, as most of you have done, that he failed because he was not a PH smacks of complete elitism and narrow mindedness. The guide did not succeed in protecting his client but that was sure as hell NOT because he didn't know what to do or was inexperienced around DG and rifles. Ask yourself, why the cow didn't finish her job on Mr Siebel and the guide? They were at her mercy and she was half way through her task when she...... just upped and left??

Will, you are the ele expert here right? What do you think would make an enraged, no, a DISTRESSED cow, stop in the middle of an attack and walk off?

Impressive, but I have a question, why the professional hunter waited to shoot both?, maybe if he had shot earlier would have prevented this incredible accident.

Oscar.

OK, ok, I just realized it's a photographic safari guide and not a professional hunter, sorry for the mistake. Yet I think the photographic safari guides should be better prepared to address situations that they know they can expect to live.

Oscar.

The guide had enough time to put two bullets into the head of this animal. If the client was gored after this then so be it and we could be talking ammunition failure, angle of shot etc here. But we are not.

If the guide fired a warning shot then as a double user he would have been disadvantaged and he should know that. A double gives you two quick shots and is designed to put stuff down at close quarters which is especially handy under a charge scenario.

Me I would have put the warning shot straight between the elephant's eyes.

Oh I forgot to wish a speedy and full recovery for Tom.

A hug Tom,

Oscar.

quote:

Originally posted by Alan Bunn:

I would never willingly put myself into a situation where I could not defend myself, and I hope I never do so by accident or bad luck.
Just another reminder of the old saying that when in elephant country, carry an elephant rifle.

My thought exactly --- if I can't carry MY gun, I ain't going!

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
The guide had enough time to put two bullets into the head of this animal. If the client was gored after this then so be it and we could be talking ammunition failure, angle of shot etc here. But we are not.

If the guide fired a warning shot then as a double user he would have been disadvantaged and he should know that. A double gives you two quick shots and is designed to put stuff down at close quarters which is especially handy under a charge scenario.

Me I would have put the warning shot straight between the elephant's eyes.

That is an old adage. "Put a warning shot between it's eyes." But then we weren't there. Quick decision as to what to do. The guide screwed up in my book.

I don't believe there is any way an experienced guide can be as qualified as an experienced elephant PH.

If a PH is fending off ticked off cows all the times and knocking down (if not quite killing ) charging elephant, and a guide is feeding peanuts to the elephants, the jobs are quite different.

The guide is trying to convince the clients that wild animals are just big fuzzy pets.

To my recollection of these types of incidents with guides is that they wait too long to react. Why? Who knows. The boss always telling them not to shoot, the belief that the animal will stop, the belief that it can't happen to them?

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:

quote:

Originally posted by Alan Bunn:

I would never willingly put myself into a situation where I could not defend myself, and I hope I never do so by accident or bad luck.
Just another reminder of the old saying that when in elephant country, carry an elephant rifle.

My thought exactly --- if I can't carry MY gun, I ain't going!

Me too!
I'm thinking the same thing the whole time I'm reading this report!

quote:

Originally posted by Will:
I don't believe there is any way an experienced guide can be as qualified as an experienced elephant PH.

Many PHs are also PGs.... The two jobs are very compatible.

quote:

The guide is over there 12 yards [away], curled up in a ball, wrapped around [the] . . . rifle, playing dead. . . . Basically what happened is I got served up.

It would seem the PG should be doing something other than "playing dead" since he had the rifle. Missing the one shot he took at 4 yards was not good but just playing dead and not pitching in while the client is being gored is unforgivable.

quote:

Originally posted by SteveGl:
Maybe that's the difference between a PH and a photo-guide.

Several years back my than PH in Zim had two learner PHs attending him. One of those was a very intelligent and able guy. The second not so. The PH told me that the second one would probably not be able to become a fully licensed PH for hunting safaris but he might well become a guide for photographic safaris. Hearing this I made a silent promise to myself never to go on a photo safari in a big game area if I were able to bring my big game rifle along…
I assume that there are also very able photographic guides – but Toms accident seems to support my prejudice.
Cheers, Hans

Alan I am very sorry to hear of your accident! I hope all goes well and your body heals just fine.

Why this guide did not shoot the elephant at 20 yards I don't know but I sure as hell would have on the first shot.

I all so learned a long time ago, never depend on other people to get you out of a tuff spot. My moral is if your going to take pictures, sling a rifle over your should too.

quote:

Originally posted by Blue Dog:
Why this guide did not shoot the elephant at 20 yards I don't know but I sure as hell would have on the first shot.
.

There would be a heck of a lot a dead Cow Elephant each season if this was the case and that's why most game departments restrict the distance of Self defence shooting of game.

Always be prepared to protect yourself and family; don't rely on anyone else unless they are true professional like a licensed PH.

quote:

Originally posted by Palmer:

quote:

The guide is over there 12 yards [away], curled up in a ball, wrapped around [the] . . . rifle, playing dead. . . . Basically what happened is I got served up.

It would seem the PG should be doing something other than "playing dead" since he had the rifle. Missing the one shot he took at 4 yards was not good but just playing dead and not pitching in while the client is being gored is unforgivable.

have you ever been bowled over by a charging ele? Maybe he wasn't playing "dead". Maybe he was concussed

The fact that the injury was within the confines of an exclusive non-hunting preserve may speak volumes as to why there was an injury.

Not all, but probably, most, of the folks who visit such places have absolutely no clue of the life and death sagas of wild animals.

Elephants, lions, leopards, eagles, crickets, mice or whatever to which Walt Disney Studios and animal rights folks have given human characteristics still fight a battle to eat, kill and survive every day, regardless if tourists want to feel like they have had a "safe" experience, regardless of what you see at the theater. The law of the Jungle says, "Screw with them and they will screw with you". That's what they do for a living.

I'm sure that it is in the back of every tour guide's mind whose "feelings" will get hurt and what income will be lost if Dumbo or the Lion King get shot. (And, I use the word Tour Guide not to disparage the guy with the gun, but a "tour", not a "safari" is what most of the customers expect.) Heck, folks who think animals have human feelings, rights and compulsions are the primary income source and whose visits pay the bills at eco lodges. Brain shot elephants, meat recovery trucks, vultures eating the eyes of a "sweet" animal do not encourage more patronage when the client base thinks Dumbo really flew or that wart hogs are embarassed when they fart.

Should the guide have shot sooner? Probably. Should he have shot more accurately? Of course. Should customers on such tours have a more realistic awareness of what might go on when they start f'ing with elephants. You bet your bippy.

As Lou Hallamore once said to me after a buffalo came out of nowhere and tried to string my intestines from Harare to Vic Falls.... "They don't call it 'dangerous game' for nothing." Yes, almost any wild animal will try to hurt you sooner or later, provoked or not. Yep, the simple fact is, eco-freak or DG hunter, everytime you go into the bush, you're playing with fire. The only insurance from harm is staying in your living room.

If you don't want to risk having an elephant stomp your ass, don't go. There has never been a perfect P.H. or tour guide or Eco companion. Shit happens. Bullets miss their targets. Sun gets in someones eyes. Guns misfire. Guides and clients piss their britches.

It is all a part of life. Weigh the risks versus the benefits, stack the odds in your favor with good preparation (like choosing experienced guides with guns that work or, if hunting, learn the skills to save your own butt), and, then you pays your nickel and you takes your chances and hoefully have a rewarding experience. Whoopee!

Knowing who Tom is, I'll bet he did exactly the above, realizing that a risk existed, that the odds that he'd be the guy who would get hurt were very slim, he relied on the reputation of the preserve and the guy with the gun and went to see stuff not in Miami or Brooklyn.

I've done the same thing and have even included my children who are the most precious things in the world to me. Did we do dangerous stuff? Yep. But, they wanted to do it, were old enough to be included in the decision and weighed the benefit vs. the chances of poop in the fan themselves.

Was I willing to face to consequences if anything happened to my ladies? Of course not. I'd have just shot my own damn self... yet young birds have to learn to fly. It is one of the great principles of life: If you don't do shit, you won't be worth a shit.

I rolled the dice and got seven. Seems that Tom got snake-eyes (clearly from the elephant and maybe from his guide).

Fifty cents says that Tom will go to Africa again, maybe with a little more protection because he can afford it, but, again, with an understanding we all should have that "stuff happens". Tom knew before he got hurt and has just confirmed to us and himself that sometimes really "living" is pretty close to dying. More power to him and his recovery.
JMHO.