Elephants

[Wyld@Heart]

Another tourist killed by an elephant in South Africa, this time at The Kruger National Park. Details are sketchy but the apparent gist of the incident as these:

1) Grandfather and his two grandchildren aged 11 and 5 involved with the grandfather killed
2) Incident happened at Malelane Gate but here is where the articles and details get hazy and it's not apparent whether it happened in the Park or outside as some outlets state that the elephant went back into the Kruger while the SanParks release state at Malelane Gate
3) There are conflicting eye witness accounts: one is that they were taking videos etc, the elephant charged, they all ran, the boy aged 11 fell, the grandfather returned to help and was trampled while another version states that the grandfather noticed the elephant close by and then ran towards the kids. 

I can but give you my opinion having been to Malelane and most other gates and my own personal experience and a misconception that a lot of people have when at the gates. The reception area, offices, toilets, curios etc are actually within the park boundaries and are generally unfenced while the actual gate and boundary fence is sometimes as much as a kilometer away. 

In the case of Malelane, as you exit the park, you have the reception offices, parking lot and the road exiting across the bridge and then the actual gate thus the area between the reception and gates is still Park and open to any of it's inhabitants large and small. I myself have come across leopard, on foot but spotted well in advance and a safe distance kept (relatively), as well as elephant, buffalo, hippo etc while in my vehicle. It is at this point where visitors can be lulled into a false sense of security, a very good example being another incident at Paul Kruger Gate where a group of ladies taking photos of the Paul Kruger statue had to run for their lives as a breeding herd came through. 

It is extremely unfortunate and I must stress that my post above is merely my own observation of the surrounds and what my experience is. Details are sketchy, like I said, and I would not want to speculate or put the blame on the unfortunate but in my opinion, a similar incident came close to happening before and it was probably only a matter of time before it struck hard.

Links to my post of SanParks Forum about leopard on foot, the previous incident at Kruger Gate and the release by SanParks of the death:

https://www.sanparks.org/forums/viewtopi...t#p2084866

https://youtu.be/spTvCVF-OL4?si=eaVNFATZD7NpAl0D

Not hard to see how things could go pear shaped very quickly in that scenario and the reality is, that sort of video taking at entrance gates take place with regularity.

https://www.sanparks.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=133739

I've deliberately not linked a news article as I don't feel that any of them are giving any sort of context while sensationalising to a large extent. So if the release on the last link seems a bit bare, it's by choice. Reply