Elephant kills tourists in Zim
26/03/2007 15:15 - (SA)

Harare - Two tourists died when an elephant charged them in western Zimbabwe, said the British embassy on Monday. A third one was admitted to hospital with serious injuries.

The identities of the tourists were being withheld until their families were informed. No further details were made available.

The Britons were on a game-viewing trip in the Hwange National Park on Saturday.

Police in the western provincial capital of Bulawayo and wildlife authorities reported investigations were under way to see whether the tour group's armed local guides had been negligent, though guides are often taken by surprise by the speed of such attacks.

Last year, Gianpaolo Tarabini, husband of Italian fashion designer Anna Molinari, was killed in an elephant attack in Zimbabwe.

Incidents go unreported

Elephants are the second most dangerous animals for humans in Zimbabwe, after crocodiles.

According to official figures of reported incidents, in 2005 elephants charged and trampled 12 people to death, including villagers trying to protect their crops from the giant herbivores that eat an average 300kg of fodder a day.

Other incidents go unreported in remote areas. No tally is available for last year.

Conservation groups say the elephant population in the western Hwange Park, the nation's largest nature reserve, has soared in the absence of regular culling measures to control the population and avert further damage to the habitat of elephant herds foraging for diminishing food sources.

Poaching, erratic rains and breakdowns of pumping equipment at manmade watering holes have affected elephants - notoriously skittish under stress - in the Hwange Park.

News24.com