Elephant Charges Tourists, Flips Canoes In Terrifying Safari Video: WATCH
A safari in Botswana’s Okavango Delta nearly turned deadly when an elephant charged and flipped tourists’ mokoros.
A group of tourists on a canoe safari in Botswana are lucky to be alive after a raging elephant charged them and flipped their boats.
The incident happened Sept. 27 in the Okavango Delta. It's a popular safari destination and UNESCO World Heritage site that draws millions of tourists each year. Two American and British couples were being poled "gondola style" in separate canoes — called mokoros — when the guides reportedly got too close to a female elephant and her calves.
That’s when all hell broke loose. And the whole terrifying scene was caught on video.
A massive bull elephant charged the group while the guides frantically tried to backpedal the canoes, shouting "Back, back, back." One tourist kept recording as the bull slammed into the canoes with its trunk, flipping them and sending everyone overboard.
As one woman struggled to stand up in the water, the elephant came up behind her, knocked her over and appeared to hold her down with its trunk for several seconds.
"They had a very lucky escape, indeed, because all four could just have easily been killed by that angry bull," a former South African game ranger told the Daily Mail. "The woman was lucky not to have been gored, but if it had held her down for another few seconds, it would probably have drowned her."
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Eventually, the elephant turned and walked away, rejoining the rest of the herd. The woman’s husband helped her to shore.
Elephants are cool, but keep your distance — especially if there are calves involved.
(Getty Images)
A staff member from one of the canoe safari companies confirmed the tourists lost "a lot of expensive camera equipment and phones," but all miraculously escaped without major injuries.
"There could well have been the need for four body bags if Lady Luck had not favored them," the former ranger added. "It will certainly give them a story to tell around the fire for many years to come."
Botswana is home to one-third of Africa’s elephant population, and the Okavango Delta is known for its large herds. Wildlife encounters are common here, but this one was especially close.
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