There's been much discussion here locally among those embedded in the wildlife industry. Important factors in
this elephant incident include:
> the Busanga Plains are situated at the northern end of Kafue NP along the seasonally flooding Lufupa river. I was last there 20 years on a rewarding research trip before the big tourism developments. It's since become a popular and expensive destination - hence Wilderness safaris being a high profile operator there. Wild animals are regularly exposed to human encounters, including in cars and walking
> The Kasonso-Busanga Game Management Area to the north suffers heavy poaching, and also has resident rural people, who are very poor and rely on subsistence agriculture (and local wild products) and if they are lucky a bread winner working far away. Elephants move across the larger landscape, which expose them to negative experiences with humans. Bulls in particular range widely, which includes raiding seasonal crops outside the National Park;
> Judging from video footage of the attack, we agree the elephant bull was in musth and so unusually aggressive. This diagnosis includes the conclusion of two experienced Pro guides/hunters with decades of elephant experience, and concurs with my own encounters with countless elephants on foot and in cars. One can spot a musth bull far off from its body language, long before the obvious signs of temporal gland discharge etc are discernable. Typically, it's the sudden close up encounters when the proverbial cr@p hits the fan with a musth bull!
> The pragmatic solution in such encounters with any aggressive elephant is discretion, especially on foot even if one is adequately armed. If in a vehicle evade and drive away swiftly. However, it appears the guide was driving off road, which hampered a hasty evasion - termitaria and/or vegetation blocked the escape route. Trying to dissuade a musth bull by shouting etc typically fails if one is stationary in such a situation. In this particular incident that had escalated badly, it is clear the only solution was a frontal brain shot with a heavy caliber rifle by an experienced guide.
Off road driving in African parks is a conservation menace. It has countless negative impacts (eg ground nesting birds, the invertebrate and herpeto-faunas, soil compaction etc). This includes driving up to dens of large cats or wild dogs with young; besides stress this increases the risks that lion and spotted hyaena follow up in curiosity, with negative consequences. Off road driving should be banned and penalized with hefty convictions and termination of the operator's licence.
