Because these tourists were idiots an elephant was killed

This is ridiculous to me. The tourists were following this elephant in their car in the wild and because they obviously got too close for the elephants comfort it turned and attacked. So they kill the elephant for doing what it does naturally in the wild. Seems more like they should have shot the tourists for being complete idiots and not understanding that an elephant is bigger than they are. Most likely they did not heed any warnings either....stupidity like this amazes me.

I can't believe they would kill the elephant over this...that is just dumbfounding.

Source

"As they were driving behind the elephant, probably also taking a video of the elephant in front of them, the elephant apparently decided to turn around.

"Unfortunately they switched off the engine - because if you minimise noise an elephant would not attack you - [but] unfortunately the elephant attacked."

The elephant has since been killed.

"Unfortunately we had to put down the elephant because we did not understand the behaviour," said Mr Mabasa.

They then discovered that the male elephant had been "on musth", a periodic condition where testosterone levels rise and elephants become more aggressive.

and the video.....

I always figured that if we're supposed to leave nature be then we should just let it be when it turns and attacks some moron for not leaving it be.

Let the elephant attack or kill them. It's their own fault. Just like all these morons who feed bears then get mauled. Why go hunt down the bear? It didnt do anything wrong.

Live and live, right?

Making the animal suffer for your stupidity is a travesty.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Exactly...it isn't like you can just tell an elephant it should not have done that. But you can tell the human it shouldn't have and to learn from the mistake. Nature should take it's course....had they died I would consider this a good candidate for the Darwin Awards...."oh look honey, a MASSIVE elephant...let's get as close as we can filming and maybe you can even touch it out the window"...stupidity abounds.

Reminds me of something my folks told me about on a safari they went on. They have been to Africa on numerous occasions and use the same guide that grew up there as a child every time. He was taking them on one of their first safari's and they had a couple other people with them. They saw some leopards from a distance that were in a tree and one of the other people asked if they could pull up under the tree to get some pictures. The guide told them absolutely not as they were in an open top jeep. The person was not happy with this answer and made him tell her why to which he replied that an inexperienced guide a few years back was hired by a travel company to bring some folks on safari in the area...they requested the same. Upon pulling up under the tree, a couple minutes later two of the leopards dropped down into the open top jeep and eviscerated to occupants fairly quickly.

This ended the conversation pretty quick apparently.

Now I don't know if they hunted down and killed the leopards, but this would again seem like a "don't mess with nature" scenario.

I feel the same way, be it bears, or any animal. If it is in it's natural environment, and you startle it, harass it, or otherwise cause it harm, guess what? Your fault, not the animals.


I feel the same about dogs, to an extent. If your allowing your child to poke it's eyes, pull it's ears, climb on it, and it nips, (not mauling or excessive injury to child), that is your fault, not the dogs.

Let's face it, there are too many stupid people, when it comes to animals. And the animals suffer for it.

reply to post by chiefsmom


We're the same with our son and the cats. I try very hard to curb his behavior with them, and abusing them is one of the few things that will bring a swat. However, when I don't catch him and he gets nipped or scratched, it's on him. Sooner or later, he'll learn respect one way or the other.

People who don't even try to teach this to their children amaze me.

thisguyrighthere
I always figured that if we're supposed to leave nature be then we should just let it be when it turns and attacks some moron for not leaving it be.

Let the elephant attack or kill them. It's their own fault. Just like all these morons who feed bears then get mauled. Why go hunt down the bear? It didnt do anything wrong.

Live and live, right?

Making the animal suffer for your stupidity is a travesty.

The only caveat here is that with predators, you have to worry about them developing a taste for human blood and/or getting habituated to humans. I agree it's not their fault, but it's also no one's fault if they start endangering people who are doing the right thing because of morons who ruined them.

That's a hard one.

People who do stupid things with wildlife really almost should be shot, too, in that case.

I'm almost ashamed to be a part of the human race.

Unfortunately we had to put down the elephant because we did not understand the behaviour," said Mr Mabasa.

Yep, this is a great way to handle every situation.
Are you kidding me?

Then they find out AFTERWARDS,

TextThey then discovered that the male elephant had been "on musth", a periodic condition where testosterone levels rise and elephants become more aggressive.

I say the people running this damn park are the biggest problem.

Visitor2012
I'm almost ashamed to be a part of the human race.

I feel the same...unbelievable they would do this. Elephants are KNOWN to be aggressive in situations and these people were obviously too stupid to understand this....that or uneducated enough to think they could get that close without consequences, in which case they should be ashamed for having this elephant killed.

It's good business, they don't want a dangerous elephant causing problems for their income.
But that's how it works, which is very stupid and sad allright.

The same elephants giving good tourist income and killing them whenever or any other dangerous (the most dangerous even giving better income really (big and looking more dangerous) animal which become a ''problem''.

Most single male elephant are a danger, better have only females over there but wait they really want to see big massive male but shoot them dead when causing problems

reply to post by chiefsmom


I would agree...the park is partially to blame here as they do not seem to have been running whatever tour these guys were on in a controlled manner. That or they just trust that if they tell you not to get too close that you will follow the rules. Both sides are to blame and the elephant dies for stupid human ignorance.

reply to post by Vasa Croe


Caught the video last night and my initial reaction was, idiots for getting too close. Found out today that because of this incident the elephant got killed.

My reaction today is that they got the execution the wrong way around.

reply to post by Vasa Croe


Hey vasa, I saw this video this morning. I couldn't understand this comment 'the animal was killed because they didn't understand the elephants behaviour'

Hmm if they left the damn elephants alone instead of letting people drive up to them in cars it wouldn't of felt threatened and wouldn't of attacked. I can't see how they couldn't understand the elephants behaviour. It's pretty straight forward, a bull elephant has a car following it gets disturbed and feels threatened and attacks the car .. It's nature

Poor elephant

Zcustosmorum
reply to post by Vasa Croe

 

Caught the video last night and my initial reaction was, idiots for getting too close. Found out today that because of this incident the elephant got killed.

My reaction today is that they got the execution the wrong way around.

My reaction is the same. Wrong animal was put down....

The people in this situation should receive a hefty fine (to go for the good of elephants). If you so much as leave a coke can, cooler, bag of chips, etc., out at your campsite it's either a $500 or $1,000.00 fine. It can be a lot of work to put everything away to run to the lake for a quick swim but it's responsible and reasonable. I really hope there is a consequence for this.

Vasa Croe
...
I would agree...the park is partially to blame here as they do not seem to have been running whatever tour these guys were on in a controlled manner. That or they just trust that if they tell you not to get too close that you will follow the rules. Both sides are to blame and the elephant dies for stupid human ignorance.

The Kruger National Park covers an area of 19,633 square kilometres (7,580 sq mi). Although there are tours by professional rangers available it is not the norm. You drive around on your own in your own car. It's been operating this way for almost a 100 years. There are countless warnings everywhere - you just have read and think.

The problem is however that the animals are used to cars and people gaping at them, and appear to be "tame", even though they are still very much wild animals. Locals know better. Foreign tourists - not so much. I've seen it myself... They get out of the cars (even though it's strictly forbidden) to take better pictures. They drive right up to animals (as in this case) thinking that no harm will come to them. The Park do the best they can - they trust people's common sense. Hundreds of thousands of people visit the KNP annually and none of them get hurt - just because they follow the very simple rules.

There is just so much the Rangers can do - as it is they already have their hands full with poachers. Now they have to deal with tourists that can't read or think for themselves?

This is an informational video by the Kruger National Park with the very basic rules:



It's tragic that the elephant had to be put down because of the idiocy of these people.

Reminds me of this drunk idiot last year:

chiefsmom
I feel the same way, be it bears, or any animal. If it is in it's natural environment, and you startle it, harass it, or otherwise cause it harm, guess what? Your fault, not the animals.

Really? While I agree the people in the car were absolute idiots and should be banned from stepping foot in nature, let's not forget that we humans also come from the jungle. A bears domain isn't just his, it's ours too. Now I don't advocate going out in the forest looking for bears and other wile life to kill, I do believe we should be allowed to defend ourselves too.

Auricom

chiefsmom
I feel the same way, be it bears, or any animal. If it is in it's natural environment, and you startle it, harass it, or otherwise cause it harm, guess what? Your fault, not the animals.

Really? While I agree the people in the car were absolute idiots and should be banned from stepping foot in nature, let's not forget that we humans also come from the jungle. A bears domain isn't just his, it's ours too. Now I don't advocate going out in the forest looking for bears and other wile life to kill, I do believe we should be allowed to defend ourselves too.

Sure you should be allowed to defend yourself but they hunted the elephant down and killed it after this happened....and they obviously could not defend themselves as evidenced in the video. They were idiots.

reply to post by Auricom


This wasnt defense. This was retribution.

Don't sit on your hands and allow yourself to be mauled but don't go out and hunt down an animal that was just doing it's animal thing while you did something stupid to get mauled in the first place a month after you get out of the hospital.

They need to keep the real elephants somewhere they can be safe. Then they need to build animatronic disneyland elephants for the tourists and keep them away from the real ones.