Some weeks ago, a herd of elephants trampled a Spanish tourist to death in the Pilanesberg National Park, about 200 km from Johannesburg. Carlos Luna, a 43-year-old man from the town of Zaragoza, was on a photographic safari with his partner and two other women.
Park officials say Luna spotted three elephant cows and their calves, so he stopped the car and got out to take photographs. He then approached the small herd to get a closer view.
The Spanish news website, La Vanguardia[1], quoted conservation manager of the Northwest Parks and Tourism Board, Pieter Nel, as saying the matriarch of the herd became “agitated” when she saw the man approaching. He added, “Many tourists are unaware of the dangers and do not realize how dangerous these animals can be.”
The Board issued a statement saying that an adult female elephant charged the man. "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," it said.
"The elephants moved away immediately from the scene without any aggression towards the nearby vehicles and eventually disappeared into the bushes."
Police said the Luna's fiancée and the two other women, all from Johannesburg, remained in the vehicle and were unharmed.
Up to this point, La Vanguardia more or less repeated the information carried by dozens of media organisations all over the world. However, the following statement in the article left me dismayed.
It claimed that “Elephant attacks are common in the region”. This cavalier statement says more about the publication’s limited understanding of the geography of Southern Africa than anything else. It suggests that if you come to this part of the world there is a probability that elephants could stomp on you.
La Vanguardia supports its rash generalisation by quoting an incident in April 2021 when elephants killed suspected poachers in the Kruger National Park[2]. This tragedy occurred almost 600kms away, more than three years earlier. It is hardly enough to merit the attack as “common in the region”. The article then says that “Last year, 50 people died and 85 were injured by wild animals, mainly elephants, in neighbouring Zimbabwe”.
I am sensitive about the reputation of elephants particularly because I regularly visit the Addo Elephant Park (AEP). It is unreasonable to say that Addo elephants would never do such a thing because it is foolhardy to predict what wild animals might do in every situation.
The more realistic danger you face in going to Addo is that you might get hijacked on the highway going to the Park.
As far back as 1913, a South African Police report described the elephants in the Addo area as dangerous because they had lost their fear of men due their proximity to humans. The widely held belief at that time was that the elephants would “attack men without provocation and that they were especially dangerous when claves were at foot”[3].
That was a long time ago when hunters and farmers did not think twice about shooting wild animals.
To my knowledge, there have been no attacks at Addo in recent times even though the park has more than 600 elephants and insane visitors occasionally wander around outside their vehicles.
Addo Addicts usually refer to ‘our’ elephants as ‘gentle giants’. So far, that epithet appears to be holding true.
Does that mean that for some strange reason, elephants in other parts of the country are more dangerous?
Pilanesberg elephants have a bad reputation
Pilanesberg National Park, the reserve where Carlos Luna was trampled, does have a history of elephants with unruly behaviour. In 1994, rangers at the park found a number of horribly mutilated dead rhinos with broken backs. They were certain that young elephants were to blame but no one could understand why they would brutally attack the smaller animals.
Two years later, in July 1996, Eddie Koch reported[4] in the Mail & Guardian that a young bull elephant had charged a group of tourists in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve. When a professional hunter was sent to shoot the elephant the next day, it trampled him to death.
Koch noted that Pilanesberg elephants had brutally killed almost 20 white rhinos worth about U$ 15,000 each at that time. He added that the elephant herds were showing, “increasing signs of pathological behaviour — including aberrant efforts to mate with rhino cows”.
Niki Moore reported[5] in the Mail & Guardian that the first elephants from the Addo Park were introduced when the Pilanesberg was formed in 1979. Soon after that, SANParks staff had to cull adult elephants in the Kruger National Park, they then moved the orphaned calves to Pilanesberg.
They brought in the juveniles because the logistics and costs of moving large elephant bulls were prohibitive, and with the limited understanding of elephant social structure at the time, it was not deemed necessary to translocate adults.
The young elephants struggled to form a social group until two circus-trained females were introduced. Thereafter, all appeared to be going well as the calves grew up.
Then everything appeared to be falling apart as the teenage elephants became increasingly aggressive – towards rhinos and tourists. The problem was found to be that young bulls were coming into musth at about 18 years of age – about ten years younger than was normal for elephants.
Detailed research and the input of Joyce Poole, a world authority on musth in elephants, pinpointed the problem. Musth is a natural period of supercharged hormones in elephants that starts at about the age of 29 and increases as the bull gets older. But this is a confusing time for young elephants (just like hormonal changes in human teenagers). Older bulls are necessary in herds as they suppress the onset of musth in youngsters and teach them how to deal with it. - Niki Moore
The absence of large and experienced bull elephants in translocated herds was causing the young males to come into musth much earlier than they would naturally.
Park staff then arranged to bring in six mature bulls from the Kruger National Park early in 1998. Moore writes, “The results were immediate and astonishing. The attacks on rhino stopped and the aberrant behaviour disappeared”.
The elephant rampages have largely been contained, but the odd incidents do happen. Mild mannered elephants can still be dangerous wild animals especially if they are in musth or protecting a young calf.
At the Addo Elephant Park visitors in their cars can get extremely close to elephants. Conservationists advise visitors to switch off their engines ensuring that the approaching elephant has enough space to walk by.
It is however, not uncommon to find yourself at a look-out point watching a herd socialising near a watering hole, when almost imperceptibly you find that you are being surrounded. There are elephants everywhere and there is nothing you can do but glory in the thrill of being so up-close and personal with the largest animals on earth.
[1] La Vanguardia – Muere un turista español pisoteado por elefantes en Sudáfrica: salió del coche a fotografiar la manada July 9, 2024. https://www.lavanguardia.com/sucesos/20240709/9791687/muere-turista-espanol-pisoteado-elefantes-sudafrica.html
[2] SANParks media release: Suspected Poacher Killed by Elephants in the KNP. https://www.sanparks.org/news/media-release-suspected-poacher-killed-by-elephants-in-the-knp
[3] Elephants in the Addo Bush. Page 74 KAB, 1/UIT, 17/18, 138/13, Sub-Inspector South African Police to Magistrate at Uitenhage, 29th May 1913,
[4] Why are the elephants attacking people? https://mg.co.za/article/1996-07-05-why-are-the-elephants-attacking-people/
[5] Operation father figure published in May 2002 https://mg.co.za/article/2002-05-24-operation-father-figure/
Portuguese man trampled. Sadly the North West Parks & Tourism Board has confirmed the incident at the Pilanesberg Nature Reserve yesterday at around 13h00.
According to eyewitnesses, two people were outside their vehicle on a self-drive safari.
A media statement says: “It is not clear if they were aware that they were in the middle of a family herd of elephants, but they were warned to get back into their vehicle by other people nearby who saw the elephants”
An adult elephant suddenly attack the man who sustained serious injuries. He rushed to the local hospital where he was stabilised and later transferred to a hospital in Pretoria.
This was posted on social media by Heinrich Neumeyer
Hi there everyone. Yes unfortunately there was an incident today at roughly 12:50 this afternoon just outside of Mankwe Hide. The respective foreign gentlemen parked his car in the parking area, climbed out of his vehicle and walked towards the road (Letsha Drive) to take a photo of some elephants where he was surprised by another nearby elephant. He got trampled very badly. Luckily another vehicle was present who distracted the elephant and eventually the elephant left the gentleman and ran off. The gentleman was very badly injured. His intestines were out of his body. A couple of vehicles in the area witnessed this horrific ordeal. I will never forget the shock on their faces. It was extremely traumatic. The gentleman was rushed to a nearby hospital and then transferred to a hospital in Pretoria. He is apparently stable. The Park Management will make a statement from their side as well I'm sure. It's a very very unfortunate incident and I hope people will realise that they can not take chances with ANY animal or climb out of their vehicles in the Park. We see some extremely stupid things being done by local and foreign guests alike. It's not a zoo. The animals are not tame. That close up photo or close experience is not worth your life. May I just congratulate the Parksboard who immediately sent out someone when I reported it. It was dealt with VERY professionally. They even visited the gentleman in the hospital.
Sad but very interesting!