A renowned conservationist recounted on Wednesday how he and his friends narrowly escaped an attack by an enraged bull elephant.
Lawrence Anthony and his two friends were on a night drive at Thula Thula Game Reserve near Empangeni in KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday night when the animal attacked them.
”He came at us from nowhere in a full-blooded charge, hammering the front of the Land Rover station wagon and driving us backwards into the bush for about twenty yards,” said Anthony.
”Then he backed off, swung around to the left, and before I could move he charged at the passenger side crushing the doors and smashing the vehicle right over on to its side.”
Anthony said his two passengers fell on top of him and the animal attacked again.
”He charged again, and with incredible fury literally smashed the vehicle over on to its roof, popping out the windows and windscreen, and then he continued to pound at us until the Landy fell back on its side.
”He was trumpeting and stomping around completely enraged, but thankfully he had driven the passenger compartment into a thicket and he couldn’t reach us.”
Anthony said he managed to get his pistol and fired shots into the air. He screamed at the elephant until it backed off. ”I then started talking calmly to him as he came back and reached in at us with his trunk, and then his ears came down and he backed off and stood there looking at us.”
A herd of elephants arrived and mulled around. Eventually the elephant walked off with them. Anthony managed to fix the radio, which had been smashed, and called the rangers who came to fetch them. ”Amazingly, no one was hurt.”
He said the elephant would not be shot as he and his friends had invaded its territory.
”No, this is his territory and it was my fault. He was in musth [a mating condition where a bull elephant’s testosterone levels can increase by 50 times] and I should have been more careful,” he said.
Anthony, a South African born in Durban, is the founder of The Earth Organisation. He is best known for rescuing the Baghdad Zoo during the coalition forces’ invasion of Baghdad. — Sapa