Historias al fuego del Campamento

Otra historia de Dave Cumings:

HISTORIAS DE AFRICA #3: “What would you do if someone came and killed your child?”

From Dave Cumings

Another story from the Low Zambezi. A group of National Park scouts were going home one evening after doing work on the roads and a cow elephant which had been looking in the bush suddenly rushed out and grabbed the last person in the line and killed him. It appeared that this elephant had been hiding there for most of the day. When an investigation took place, which has to happen when someone is killed by an animal, they tracked the animal to the way it came from, the story eventually unfolded as follows:

This particular scout although he worked for National Parks and was supposed to be conservation oriented he was part of the group of poachers who were putting snares in the bush. And this elephant’s calf was cut in one of the snares and died. This elephant had then using the sense of scent alone had followed this man’s tracks to his house in the village and waited there hidden for him most of the day. He was out in the bush and didn’t come back and waited there all night. Next day it picked up his tracks because he got tired of waiting followed him out into the bush and ambushed him and killed him. Our warden at the time was approached by all the village people to kill this elephant because they said “you can’t have an animal here that kills people” and the warden refused to do this. His words were actually: “What would you do if someone came and killed your child?”. And this is one of the very rare occasions in situations like this where people don’t take advantage to kill an animal and get the meat where they actually treated it almost as you would have treated a human being.