A big game hunter from California dies when he’s trampled by elephants.
I was thinking that it was odd that they “stumbled upon” 5 elephants. Elephants are pretty big.
But I guess, in reality, the 5 elephants stumbled upon the hunters.
Elephants are gonna elephant. When species behave exactly as you’d predict, tough shit when it doesn’t turn out well for you. Maybe he’d have had a chance if the “surprised herd” wasn’t protecting a calf.
It stated that while he wasn’t hunting elephants this trip, he had previously. Karma indeed. Fuck him.
Winegrape Commission Executive Director Stuart Spencer said Dosio would volunteer to help set up and clean up at ZinFest, and ask for nothing in return.
Wow! The end of a noble human.
No, actually, fuck him.
Story also being discussed in a Pit thread, if you need greater freedom of expression.
Elephants are suprisingly quiet. I have “stumbled” upon one in the Zambezi Valley in Zimbabwe, while going out of camp in the night to urinate. I got within a metre - it was dark - before I realised. I made a swift exit down a steep sandbank to the river, because, similarly to cows, elephants are not good with steep inclines.
He/she was not threatening me, probably mostly interested in WTF I was doing, but I know not to mess with a pachyderm over 100 times my size.
If TPTB want to merge this thread with that one, I will not object. I should have figured there’d be a pit thread about it.
Elephants can get pretty POed when they want to!
I know it’s cruel, but when something this ironic happens, I just have to laugh.
The part that really sucks about this is that the local game commission is probably going to find and kill these elephants, since they killed a human. They don’t deserve that.
Don’t they destroy animals who “get a taste for humans”—i.e., predators? IOW, I wouldn’t think elephants would pose an ongoing threat, unless you surprise them when they’re protecting a calf.
Which, again, is exactly the behavior you’d expect from a herd. Predators who target humans are aberrant, this behavior is not.
It started out as a Pit thread celebrating the victory of a bullfighting bull against a matador, but other examples of animals defeating humans got added. It’s a logical growth of the topic.
This happened in Gabon which has made the protection of forest elephants a priority in their national park reserves.
Euthanizing elephants 
n retaliation for trampling dead a rich white male big game hunter ain’t gonna happen imo.
The 75 year old vic’s home was reportedly stuffed with wild animals. I saw one such pic online, of uncertain provenance (could be fake or misattributed).
Big game hunters are typically charged hefty fees which support local conservation efforts and local communities. This hunter was hunting yellow-backed duikers, a species of antelope that is nearly threatened - which isn’t too bad. The species is widely hunted by locals across several countries.
I’m not especially perturbed by the vic’s choice of target on this particular hunting excursion. I have reasonable suspicions regarding his previous choices.
I don’t mind big game hunting. Especially if they get the large fees.
If there’s an overpopulation of a species and it’s creating problems(I am talking to you, you nasty feral hogs!) I say open hunting.
To quote Spock: “to hunt a species to extinction is not logical”
Maybe not an over population of an animal but an over population of humans encroaching. Then you get to the argument about humans killing off the natural predators (see: deer in most/many states). Circuling around to the reintroduction of predators vs. livestock. Destruction of natural habitat. Where am I going with this? Like everything, it’s complicated.
Or, that might just be the cover story he uses. “Well I wasn’t out here for elephants; honest! I just had to shoot it in self defense when it charged me!”
Poking around the internet, Gabon seems reasonably serious about their conservation efforts, for example restricting the kinds of guns that this hunter could use during his hunt. They may have had such a scenario in mind.
I do call BS on this quote from the Daily Beast:
Speaking about the father of two, an unnamed retired game hunter who knew Dosio told the Mail, “Ernie has been hunting since he could hold a rifle and has many trophies from Africa and the U.S.
“Although many disagree with big-game hunting, all Ernie’s hunts were strictly licensed and above board and were registered as conservation in culling animal numbers.
Gabon’s urban dwellers like bushmeat: there’s no need to import foreign hunters to cull herbivores and thankfully there are still four footed carnivores eager to do the job as well. But the evidence that I’ve read suggests that a well designed Trophy Hunting program can be a win for the environment. I find it reassuring that Gabon (at least c 2008) didn’t appear to allow hunting of keystone predator species. Information is spotty on the internet, so clarifications are welcome.
Yeah, he was hunting antelope, not elephants.
The gun used to hunt elephants is pretty specialized, and not something you’d carry to hunt antelope. He was also likely escorted by local game wardens/rangers.
I’m somewhat surprised that no one’s pointed out that my thread title is missing about 3 "karma"s and a “chameleon”. Hey, there’s only so much room in the title line.