Danger in Animal Parks

The recent death of a tourist in a South African lion park brings home the dangers in visiting wild animals in their home.  On my safari in Tanzania with Overseas Adventure Travel, the guides we traveled with more than once reminded us of this fact.  It is too easy to become blase, surrounded by so many animals.  Until things get dicey.

Our group traveled in converted four by four pickups, high enough off the ground that you had to pull yourself up the few steps to enter. Once inside, we were able to stand on the seats to photograph out the pop-up roof which also served as a good sunshade.  (See photo in Serengeti blog entry).

We were never admonished not to open our sliding windows but they were so high nothing could enter.   At one point, we were in the bush, moving closer to two elephants, busy foraging among trees, stripping leaves off branches with their trunks.   We moved closer and the elephant nearer to us turned toward us, looking menacing.   Our guide warned us all in low voice to keep quiet. Elephants are known for unpredicatability.  We stopped our chatter and photo taking and waited. After a bit, the elephant turned back to his task and we slowly pulled away.

The guide later shared with us that he had seen a large elephant charge a more open jeep once, his tusk piercing right through the metal of the vehicle.  Happily, there was no one sitting there.

Even worse, one time in an open jeep, the safari group was watching a lion chasing a leopard. The leopard decided a leap would be a fast getaway and it jumped into the jeep, landing on the floor.  Everyone froze, including the leopard. The lion left and the leopard leapt out.  There was more than one wet seat in the jeep, the guide said.

Just weeks before my safari, our guide said a guide friend of his was gored so badly he was left paralyzed. He was at a camp, attending to one of the vehicles and had not seen the Cape buffalo that charged him.