Cryptomundo » Taunted Tusker Killed

Taunted Tusker Killed

Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 9th, 2008

This story is being posted here, not because it is cryptozoological, but because it appears to relate to the recent discussion regarding the San Francisco Zoo tiger event.

tusker

Tusker, a large 50 year old bull African elephant (seen in this October 2007 photograph) was shot dead on Sunday, January 6, 2008 at Charara camp on the shores of Lake Kariba, 370 kilometres northwest of Harare, Zimbabwe.

The elephant had trampled several cars at a safari camp after being provoked by revellers at a new year party, say conservationists in Zimbabwe.

Johnny Rodrigues, of the independent Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, disputed a claim by park rangers that the one-tusked elephant had become a danger to people and had been classified as a “problem animal”.

“Tusker was the resident Charara elephant … he was a legend and a favourite of tourists and locals alike,” said Mr Rodrigues, who claimed that music from the party could be heard for miles around and that witnesses reported that drunken party-goers had taunted the elephant by throwing bottles, lighting fireworks, flashing car lights and even plucking hairs from its tail and slapping its rump.

“Despite this senseless abuse, we have had no reports of Tusker hurting anyone, which is testament to his basic good nature. It is shocking that these parties where drugs and alcohol are abused should be permitted in wildlife areas,” he added.

Sources: Angus Shaw, Associated Press, Independent Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 12:18 am and is filed under Breaking News, CryptoZoo News, Cryptotourism, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Obituaries. You can follow responses via our RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is not allowed.

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24 Responses to “Taunted Tusker Killed”

planettom responds: January 9th, 2008 at 12:28 am
That just makes me sick. I don’t know what else to say, I’m sad. That is just terrible.
Mnynames responds: January 9th, 2008 at 1:06 am
” The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” -Mohandas Gandhi
chrisandclauida2 responds: January 9th, 2008 at 4:23 am
lets sue Charara camp on the shores of Lake Kariba, after all if the had just a bit higher fence or another hot line or longer barbed wire this wouldn’t have happened.

see how stupid it sounds to try to sue the park or blame the elephant. it is solely the responsibility of those who antagonised the elephant to the point of explosion.
CamperGuy responds: January 9th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Tusker shall be missed and his death is a tragedy.

Tuskers antagonists and their ilk are an abomination.
Spinach Village responds: January 9th, 2008 at 5:01 am
What a shame. Makes me mad.
kittenz responds: January 9th, 2008 at 8:10 am
We may not be hearing the whole story. Apparently this elephant had been eating from garbage cans, etc, for a long time. My guess is that people fed him, too. This terrible incident reminds me of something they say in our own national parks : “A fed bear is a dead bear”.

It sounds like the officials looked for an alternative to killing the elephant; they considered moving him to another area but veterinarians said he probably would not survive. I think they should tried relocating the elephant anyway. Maybe they could have moved him to a sanctuary for elephants only, if they thought he was too potentially dangerous to relocate to another park.

Once the elephant learned that he could stomp cars and generally raise hell, he would not forget, and that would make him a very dangerous animal. Still, the attempt should have been made to relocate him. He may not have survived the move, but he certainly did not survive the hail of bullets.

What is shocking to me is that the parties were allowed in the first place. Where were park officials and rangers when the animal abuse was going on? From the article, it seems that they knew all about it. So why didn’t someone stop it, and put those people out of the park? It’s sickening.
ETxArtist responds: January 9th, 2008 at 9:55 am
It is a shame when animals are destroyed, but remember that this was a male African elephant, one of the most dangerous mammals alive today. Male elephants go through a period called musth, associated with breeding, challenging other males and intimidating the female leaders of the group. During this time they are particularly dangerous, so much so that in zoos they are kept in separate enclosures. I personally have seen 12″ solid steel bars broken in half by an elephant in musth. They are not to be messed with. Moving such an animal is extremely dangerous, especially in an uncontained area. I think the best way to have handled this situation would have been to restrict people’s access to the area, but at the same time you have to remember that Kenya is primarily a third-world country, and they necessarily have different priorities than we in the US do. That’s not to say I condone the destruction of animal life, in fact I am a vegetarian because of that very reason, but I’m just saying we should not be quick to judge the actions of others, especially those of different cultures.
greywolf responds: January 9th, 2008 at 11:05 am
So the animal gets killed because the humans get drunk and screw around with the elephant. Why were they not arrested? This is the way we as humans are, we kill! That does not say much for our race.
DARHOP responds: January 9th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I really don’t know what to say about this senseless taunting of animals. Well, yes I do but I know it will not get posted. So I will keep those remarks to myself. All I can say is, no I won’t even say that. But I will say, Rest in Peace Tusker, you will be deeply missed by the many that truly know how to act around wild animals. And let me apologize for the stupidity of my fellow man. Again Rest in Peace Tusker. May you trumpet away happily in the heavens.

This just makes me sick!
Lestat3407 responds: January 9th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
It is obvious you are talking about the San Francisco Zoo Chris and I disagree with you. The zoo has to be held liable for misjudging the tiger’s capabilites to escape the enclosure. Yes , the antagonists do have to bear some responsibility, but for a zoo to house a wild predator and not foresee every possible response to contact with humans,( even stupid ones), is utter irresponsibility.
Scott C. responds: January 9th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Although the actions of the partyers was despicable, and although the park has demonstrated enormous irresponsibility, let’s bear in mind that male elephants grow their last set of teeth at age 40… once that set wears down, they die a very slow, very miserable death. For that reason, shooting male elephants of the age that Tusker was is usually considered an act of mercy.
kittenz responds: January 9th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
ETxArtist,

You make some very good points. I still wish that the elephant could have been relocated, but, given the elephant’s enormous size and strength, and its intelligence and ability to hold a grudge, there probably was not any real choice other than the one that was ultimately made. Maybe the elephant had exhibited hostile behavior in the past. Still, it’s a dirty shame that it came down to executing him by firing squad.

What is so disgusting is that the drunken riotous parties were allowed in the park in the first place. I wonder if this is common? How could allowing such things possibly benefit the park in any way? And do parties like this take place in other African parks?
kolobe responds: January 10th, 2008 at 4:30 am
So what’s new? This happens all the time in Africa, and I am not being callous. Working with nature conservation in South Africa we had to put a lot of animals down due to feeding and teasing by mainly tourists from Europe, America and drunkards. Most of the tourist would feed the animals and when we approached them their comment was that it was easier to get photos if the animals were fed. Tour guides were particularly responsible and encouraged the tourists to feed the animals so that they can get good reports from the tourists.

Game lodges and private parks such as the one where the incident occurred regularly take wild animals and “tame” them by feeding them and allowing (encouraging) them to eat from trash, dumps, and so forth, as this allows tourists to get pictures and thus lures a lot of tourist to their parks and lodges.

It’s tragic and the only ones that suffer are the animals as an incident like this will happen; it’s only a matter of time. Add alchohol to the scene and things really begin to sour and people get even braver. The animal retaliates and bang everyone complains and an innocent wild animal needs to be put down and the tourist or visitor goes home with a wild story to tell his mates of how brave he was in the face of a raging wild animal.

I had the enviable job of controlling problem animals such as this and it was really gut wrenching to have to put down an innocent animal due to human interference, stupidity and arrogance; most of the time you feel like putting the people down instead. We eventually took to putting the animals down in front of the guilty parties to try and bring the point home with shock power. It upsets people, yes, but we started to put a lot fewer animals down. Fines, talking, etc. just does not bring the point across to arrogant people.

Young people, alchohol and wild animals do not go well together; everyone in a drunken state tries to impress and it gets worse till the animal has to be destroyed. When an animal retailiates and kills, maimes etc. I am always on the side of the animal. When will we realise that wild animals are wild weather they are used to humans or not, its their nature and survival instinct. When we are in the bush we are in their domain, when in the city they are in our domain and here we are even more wild and ruthless than them.

Cruelty today seems more part of human nature than ever before; wild animals are not even half as cruel as humans in today’s world. We kill and torture for fun; they kill for neccesity.

Finally, yes, the elephant could have been reloacted but that would just be relocating the problem as the elephant would just go back to feeding around the camps and another incident would occur. Most parks would also look at the costs of relocation and this would be far too high to justify reloacating an old “tame” bull. It always revolves around money when relocating. If it’s financially viable, relocate; if not, put the animal down as a “problem” animal.

Money versus animal: money will always win in today’s world.
DARHOP responds: January 10th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
ETxArtist responds: but I’m just saying we should not be quick to judge the actions of others, especially those of different cultures.
Some good points, but, it does’t matter what culture a person is from. Taunting animals to the brink of attack is just plain wrong. It is the animal that is being destroyed because of stupid peoples actions. Just because a culture see’s animals different than most of us here in the US, ( because we also have our idiots here to. ) It doesn’t make it right to taunt animals. I hope these party gowers had a great party, and remember the eveing. Tusker sure won’t remember it that’s for sure. I wonder if any other elephants saw what happened. I’m sure they won’t forget if they did.
DARHOP responds: January 10th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Very well said Kolobe. Sad but true. Like you said, it must be heart wrenching to have to put an animal down, especially because of the actions of the stupid.
things-in-the-woods responds: January 10th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
kittenz- hows it allowed to happen that people have drunken parties in a game reserve?

well, kolobe might know how common such a thing is, but we should bear in mind that this is zimbabwe (not Kenya, ETxArtist), which is tragically pretty much a failed state (millions going hungry or driven from their homes by the government, inflation of around 8,000%, etc.,). Under such conditions one can imagine that game park regulations might not be enforced terribly well.

still, a real shame.
Quacker1 responds: January 11th, 2008 at 12:06 am
The music most likely set him off.
kolobe responds: January 11th, 2008 at 3:51 am
As kittenz says Zimbabwe is falling to pieces at present and all the wildlife parks and game reserves are in most cases in utter disrepair and the animals are suffering due to constant poaching and lack of water which is made worse by the drought being suffered by most Southern African countries at present. What game gaurds are left in Zimbabwe cannot control the guests and if they intervene are threatened with their lives. Most of these party goers etc are all armed with illegal firearms and are very quick to point them at some one or something.

I would not even venture to visit this country at present.
kittenz responds: January 11th, 2008 at 8:31 am
The political situation in so many African countries is deteriorating so rapidly. It’s awful, for the people and for the animals. Some of these things remind me of the dark time when Idi Amin was in power.
dogu4 responds: January 11th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
I would love to go to Zimbabwe now more than ever. Were people to stop visiting, the problem would only be compounded. I’ve also heard that despite the sad state of their national affairs, the people themselves are very nice and feel no resentment towards those who come to admire their breathtaking natural beauty; some say Africa’s best. If ardent wildlife conservation minded visitiors came to support these preserves the nation would be stronger in its efforts to protect and manage them responsibly. Don’t take out one’s dismay at the leadership’s unfortunate decisions by depriving economic tourism those who are working to preserve this spectacular gift for their future which will one day come…and I hope very much to see it.
dogu4 responds: January 11th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Kittenz: re your stated apprehension regarding Zimbabwe, perhaps this archived interview from NPR’s Fresh Air in which Terry Gross discusses the plight of that beautiful country with Zimbabwe journalist Petry Thonycroft would shed some ilight on the subject.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15806122
You can imagine how poisonous it must sound to hear the name of the monster Idi Amin in the same sentence with the name of any African nation already facing enough challenges, and in the case of Zimbabwe especially where that would be just one more injury. Cheers
kittenz responds: January 12th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I’d love to see Zimbabwe too, but I would want some reasonable assurance of leaving there alive.
plant girl responds: January 12th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
When will people learn that animals have fears and feel pain just like humans do.
Aaron7531 responds: March 4th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Humans are arrogant and stupid. Animals react on instinct, the people understand their own actions on such a different level compared to the animals I don’t know how anyone could think it valid to say anything to defend these drunken morons It is too bad Tusker did not trample them all to death before going down. If he had to die might as well take some of those responsible with him, but the animal was quite merciful towrds them. I mean a male elephant versus a bunch of drunk idiots is a no brainer. Rest now Tusker, though you deserve the life those reponsible for your death are enjoying.

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