In a harrowing incident caught on video a canoe tour group in Botswana’s Okavango Delta was charged by an angry bull elephant after coming too close to elephant calves.
Elephant charges canoe and holds tourist underwater in Botswana’s Okavango Delta
The video shows an elephant charging through the water as guides manning dugout canoes with tourists rapidly attempted to retreat. The bull elephant then rammed into two of the canoes, knocking several people into the murky water. The tourists were not wearing life jackets or personal floatation devices (PFDs) in the video.
The elephant then continued to charge at the tourists, four of whom were now out of their canoes and in the water, and held a woman under water with its trunk. Meanwhile, other canoes retreated. Eventually, the elephant gathered with its young and left. The woman who was held underwater was helped out of the water.
Daily Mail reported the incident was triggered by the tourist canoes venturing too close to a mother elephant and her calves, resulting in the bull’s charge. Additionally, Daily Mail reported that a former South African game ranger commented that the four tourists were lucky to escape with their lives, noting that the guides apparently misjudged the safe distance they usually work to maintain from elephants. All three companies that run trips in traditional dugout Makoro canoes declined to provide a comment to Daily Mail on which of the companies ran the trip, though one receptionist shared that the tourists were British and American.
How often do elephants attack?
This isn’t the first instance of an elephant charging a canoe. In 2016, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Beverly Joubert shared with Canoeroots (now Paddling Magazine) that while filming Soul of the Elephant, Joubert and her husband Dereck faced bluff charges from an elephant while working from a canoe. Joubert shared that later they discovered elephant bodies butchered to remove the ivory which the couple believed had agitated the elephant. In the film, Dereck shared that elephants are known to grieve their dead and lead rich emotional lives.
According to BBC Discover Wildlife elephants are the eighth deadliest animals to humans, responsible for as many as 500 deaths per year. While elephants are known as gentle creatures, the article cites habitat loss as humans encroach into elephant territory leading to increased human-elephant conflict.
Elephant charges tourist canoes, sending them into the water in Botswana. Feature Image: Conservation National Parks – CNP Facebook, York Post YouTube
Playing with fire! That is the risk!!!!!!
Those boats are called Mokoros and are government mandated replicas of the original hollowed out log boats use by the local indigenous peoples. They are propelled by push poles wielded by polers. Of the 7 trips I have made there using local entrepreneurs, PFDs were always mandatory. That area of the Okavango Delta the water is usually only a few feet deep which may be why there were no PFDs but judging by the uniforms of the polers this was part of a lodges activities. Local polers are well aware of the dangers and are smart enough not to tempt fate, where some lodge polers are driven by tips which are increased but close-up interactions with the things tourists come to see. But no one in Africa doesn’t understand that you Never mess with a mother and her children… yet here we are. Glad everyone involved will be OK.