http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-6120133,00.html

Monday October 2, 2006 5:08 PM


An elephant has trampled and killed a British tourist on his honeymoon in Kenya.

Patrick Smith, 34, from London, was killed in front of his wife in the Masai Mara National Reserve on Sunday.

"He was trampled by an elephant while on a nature trail with his wife," said Connie Maina, spokeswoman for the Kenya Wildlife Service. "This is a terrible accident."

Mr Smith, an employee of the global media group Reuters, and his wife had been married for just a week, Maina said.

They had arrived in Kenya for their honeymoon and were staying at the luxury Richard's Camp lodge in the game reserve. The camp is on the edge of a forest in the Masai Mara conservation area, 105 miles south-west of the capital, Nairobi.

The couple set out for their nature walk and were with an escort just 300 yards outside the camp when the elephant attacked, Maina said.

"We think the elephant must have been at very close proximity to the couple and was surprised," she said. "They don't normally do this kind of thing."

"It is terrible," Maina said. "They were on honeymoon. The wife saw what happened. I am told the wife is OK, but is shaken up."

The British High Commission said officials were trying to contact other relatives to inform them of the death.

Kenya's elephant population is estimated at 35,000, down from a peak of 167,000 in the 1970s. The elephant population declined because of rampant poaching in the 1980s that was reversed in the 1990s.

quote:

The elephant population declined because of rampant poaching in the 1980s that was reversed in the 1990s.

After reading this story again - the last sentence doesn't seem to make too much sense.

Was "rampant poaching reversed" ?

From what I understand the poaching is ongoing.

Legalize hunting in Kenya.