re: American woman killed by elephant in Zambia. The second such attack this year.....

saw the same video. I don’t believe there was sound in the vid, but i can’t imagine the screams the handler made when the elephant stepped on his back

his entire body went limp when the elephant picked him up and dropped him

Elephants, sharks of the savannah.

We just finished a week in the Serengeti and thought the guides fir the most part were respectful. There were a couple of instances where I thought it was too much, but the animals seemed to roll with it. I have a 4 minute video of elephants crossing a road around our vehicle (open air) and it was surreal how the adults came up and sized us up before moving on with the babies.

Our guide was previously a ranger on the border with the Congo and said we could not have done that in that park as the elephants didn't trust people due to poaching. Who knows if true, but it matched some e of what we have seen on documentaries.

drivers fault 100%. He stopped to get a closer look instead of keeping his passengers safe. And Elephants are very territorial (and very arse holeish). Scary frickers for sure - they don't put up with bs or anyone getting in their space.

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We just finished a week in the Serengeti

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I think that's where we may go next. Yeah we were near a few elephants crossing with their babies and you could tell they were not to be fricked with. My wife and I absolutely love elephants.

We saw a ton of them, the herd that crossed around us was 40+ and there was another of the same size just behind them. It may have been one giant herd or two loosely grouped ones. It was really cool. We are still traveling, but I will post pics when we get back.

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woman killed by elephant in Zambia.

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Things that are not going to happen to LanierSpots

I spent most of April in Africa, divided between 4 countries. Stayed at the same camp in Lufupa, Zambia where the first lady was killed, (about three weeks after) and went over the same bridge in Livingstone where the second was killed. Open air safari vehicles. I never felt unsafe, but that can change in a nanosecond around elephants. If they decide to take someone out, there is precious little you can do about it. If you see the video of the first attack, he comes charging from quite a distance, so they were not pressing him at that moment. Bulls in musth are unpredictable. I had wondered why they didn’t outrun him with the vehicle, but when you see/experience the roads, it becomes clear. Deep muddy ruts made us have to crawl off road around some places. Once we high centered on a boulder and jacks and shovels were needed to get moving again.
Fatal incidents are rare, but you definitely roll the dice when around wild elephants. We got a few head shakes, but no further aggression. The lions and leopards seem disinterested, although capable.
One thing of note is that most tourists are fixated on the Big Five, so the guides are as well. (tips, ya know) I could be just as happy watching a lilac breasted roller catch bugs, or baby baboons playing together, or giraffes plucking leaves, but seemed like we were on a mission for big five, and other sightings were stopped for, but for shorter duration.