The Savuti Elephant Incident (pictures from the Spanish "Victims" from inside both cars
and some pictures from Nanja & Jelle and a Belgium family (Luc, Ingrid, Nele en An-Sofie) (from a distance)



Savuti - a campsite inside Chobe National Park, Bostwana



Look, an elephant! How nice!



He is huge, and too close...!



Gosh... he's starting to bump things around!



Sniffing the tent...



Oops!



Crush. Minus one roof top tent ...



This is serious...Get the hell out of there...!!!





I smell tourists...



Tasting the trash ...



Found some more ...



How can we chase him off?



By calling the local officials - and a gun of course!



And the outcome ...



The aggressive bull had to pay a big price...He was shot because he was just too dangerous. Aggressive?? No, his mistake was losing his fear of humans, I'd say!

Great pics any they do like to come into camps. I had elephants come up to my tent at night in the Selous twice in the last two weeks, most recently last Sunday night at about 4:30AM. They were eating a tree that was just a few feet from where I was trying to sleep. One urinated and it sounded like a water hose was on. The rumblings and growls from their stomachs was chilling. I hollered at them to go away and it went deadly quiet as the elephants just stood there. They eventually went back to feeding. Yes, I was a bit nervous. I then clapped my hands loudly and they ran away trumpeting.
I had gotten used to the many hippos making noise so near me each night, and I love hearing lions, but an elephant SO close by isn't the best way to get a full night's sleep.

Ok, who thinks the Elephant should have been shot. Was he realy that aggressive???
If we did that over here they would lock you up and even worse take away your guns.

I would have shot the big SOB about the time he knocked the tents off the truck. It looked like he could have very well smashed the truck-- then you could have a very long walk through the bush. Looks like they gave him plenty of chances to leave before the gun got there.

I think the point is when the bunny huggers find that Disneyland has turned into reality the animals always loose.

We had elephants in camp EVERY night in Zambia while we were there. A few minutes after the generator would go off they would come in. You would hear them on the other side of the grass wall of the chalet moving around, stomachs rumbling, etc. The tracks the next morning would show they had been right up the against the chalets.

I'm not an elephant expert but considering that the bull saw all the humans around and didn't bother to even stay away a bit untill dark he was a problem.

Then even if he did come in at night imagine the people inside the tent. Obviously the people who shot him was officials if it was any one of us as hunters just shooting him we would have been in a lot of trouble. I suppose the cause from all this was bunny huggers in first place feeding the bull and he got use to it.

Unfortunately this is what happens when animals get too familiar with people and lose their fear of them. What are the chances there was an orange or some fruit of sorts in one of the tents...such things can be a bit irresistable to an elephant? He probably could have been chased away by shouting and banging some pots together, but then again maybe not and that could also turn into a nasty situation if he got aggressive. Unfortunately that is the way it goes sometimes. I don't know whether he was aggressive or not, but he was probably getting a bit too brazen for his own good.

quote:

Originally posted by Shona:
Ok, who thinks the Elephant should have been shot. Was he realy that aggressive???

Post amended after a second look at the pics

Of course we don't know the history of the Elephant or of what happened on that occasion, and as there's a large building, probably a lodge of some sort in the background of one pic, it's difficult to work out quite what went on.

Assuming it is a NP (etc) the animal would have been at least partially habituated to people and vehicles and it looked at first to me like the people were camped in the bush, rather than a fenced camping area. In which case, the Elephant was just being an Elephant and doing what Elephants do........ seeing something unusual and getting curious about it.

He didn't appear to be going after the people, he was just moving things about and exploring what to him were unusual objects with his senses of taste and smell.

If the people wanted to be safe from animals they should have gone and stayed in the adjacent lodge (if that's what it is). - Or even taken shelter in it when they saw him coming. - Alternatively, they could have set up camp in a proper camping area that would usually have been fenced. It was them that made the decision to camp where they did and therefore them that was the 'guest in the animal's home area' If you make that decision, you must also appreciate these things might happen.

My guess is that, no it probably shouldn't have been shot.

Have to agree with Steve on this one. From the little time I have spent with Elephant guiding in game parks I would have said that he was not even the least bit threatening.

What I did not mention was that the bull was hassling tourists and crushing tents and several cars for one week before he was shot. These pictures was just one of these incidents.

I would also agree, that there were no signs of any aggression in any of the pics, just a bit of rifling through camp gear which is what happens when you have inquisitive animals around with little human fear. I am sure that he could have been chased off rather than shot, unless he was a notoriously aggressive individual, (which he was probably not), only the parks officials will know that one.

Oops, sorry Johan, I did not see your post before I posted, that would probably explain it...

Fair enough then. Guess that explains the speedy arrival of the game scouts. Thanks for posting Johan. Good shots to show people how big a Bull Ele is next to a car. They never look that big on Nat Geo, might reduce the number of "Poor Elephants" being hunted.

Johan's post could well put things in a different light but of course, these things are always solved much easier by internet than in real life..........

Elephants can be a big problem when they get cheeky and/or when in musth......... sometimes they do simply need a bullet in the head and sometimes you can put them in their place by other methods such as chillie bombs, a rubber bullet or two or as Ganyana tipped me off about some years ago, a bullet in the outside edge of the ear.

Then again, if you give them too much latitude someone can get stamped on..........

Ian,

I'd always recommend hunting wealthy Elephants rather than poor ones.......... it's much more rewarding!

I'll be sure to check, thanks for the heads up

I Love this forum.

Johan's updated information might have changed the situation, in my opinion, just looking at the initial pictures I agree with Steve. Don't think he should have been shot for sturing some eco tourist around.

If this specific Elephant was a threat in the past why are these guys camping outside the lodge area?
Tourist wants Africa by day and Europe by night, when it gets a bit tough they cry.

I have seen Elephants when they are aggressive and agree they should be shot if they endanger lives, if this Elephant was out to get the tourist the car would have been on his roof.