By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The North West Parks and Tourism Board has confirmed a Spanish tourist was crushed to death by a herd of elephants inside Pilanesberg National Park after he left his vehicle to take a close-up photo of the breeding animals.
The Pilanesberg Game Reserve is South Africa’s fourth-largest park and a popular tourist destination. It is also home to more than 7,000 animals, according to its website.
The tourist and his three friends were driving in their vehicle, when they came across a breeding herd of elephants that were feeding a distance from the road.
The North West tourism board said it was “saddened” by the incident at the Pilanesberg park, urging tourists to “respect distance between vehicles and animals and … to only alight in specially designated areas.”
Parks Board chief conservation officer, Pieter Nel, said no action will be taken against the elephant. He added that it was a breeding group and the elephant that led the attack was the matriarch and it was a natural instinct for her to respond.
He said the area is a nature reserve and animals are in their natural habitat and people needed to be mindful when entering these areas.
According to eyewitnesses, the man decided to alight from the vehicle and approach the elephants on foot, taking pictures.
Despite warnings from his fellow passengers, and other occupants from two other vehicles that were at the sighting, the guest did not heed their warnings.
That is when an adult elephant cow charged at the man, and he then ran from the elephant.
He was unfortunately not able to escape or evade the elephant, which was now joined by the whole herd, and was caught and trampled to death.
The elephants moved away immediately from the scene without any aggression towards the nearby vehicles and eventually disappeared into the bushes.
The case has since been handed to the police for further investigation.
Elephant attacks are not rare in South Africa.
In 2019, a suspected poacher was attacked and killed by an elephant, and his body eaten by lions in the northeastern Kruger National Park, authorities said at the time.
In the same year, a security guard was similarly crushed to death by an elephant at a mine in the country’s Limpopo province.
Other parts of Southern Africa have witnessed similar tragedies. Three months ago, an elderly American woman was killed after an elephant charged at a vehicle transporting tourists inside Zambia’s largest national park.