Rangers
in the Kruger National Park were this week tracking a rhino and an elephant
after they attacked and injured tourists in two incidents.
The elephant charged towards a
Chevrolet Aveo hatchback, gored it with one tusk, scooped it up and flipped it
over.
This is how visitor Vasti Fourie
described what she saw on Monday morning. She and tourists in two other cars
were driving on the S25 road in the Kruger National Park in convoy.
Fourie was driving behind the white
hatchback and another car was in the front.
She saw the elephant approaching from
the side. “It charged towards the side of the car, lifted it up with its tusk,
dropped it on its roof and calmly walked away,” she said.
Fourie said the three cars were
driving slowly on the road. They stopped when they saw the elephant coming. We
are supposed to get out of the way of the animals.”
She said the man driving the
overturned car froze when he saw the elephant charging towards him.
The same elephant overturned a second
car with two passengers, 50m away from where Fourie was driving.
“It all happened so quickly.
Afterwards the driver got out of the driving seat and kneeled down in shock.
That’s when he realised what just happened,” recalled Fourie.
SA National Parks spokesman Reynold
Thakhuli said a man was injured during the incident. A doctor attended to him
at the scene before he was taken to a nearby hospital.
Thakhuli said incidents of this nature
were rare at the Kruger National Park.
He urged people visiting national
parks to be observant at all times because “animals living on national parks
are untamed and don’t think like humans”.
Thakhuli advised that when driving
through a national park nothing should protrude from a vehicle.
“When you see an animal approaching do
not panic and try to move away as fast as you can. Elephants can be very
dangerous when they feel threatened,” he said.
Rangers were tracking the elephant to
see whether it was injured.
In the other incident, a female German
tourist was slightly injured on Tuesday morning when she was charged by a white
rhino.
SANParks spokesman Ike Phaahla said
the tourist was with a group on a morning walk near the Wolhuter Trail camp
when they encountered the rhino and her calf.
“The cow charged the group and rangers
tried to chase her away,” said Phaahla. The rangers told the tourists to hide.
“The rhino must have seen the tourist taking cover behind the rock, and
charged.”
The trail rangers, said Phaahla, were
forced to open fire and wounded the animal. A doctor from Skukuza was airlifted
to the scene and found that the tourist had light injuries to her ankles and
ribs.
“She was taken to hospital by
ambulance,” said Phaahla. Newsdzezimbabwe
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