The Voice (Francistown)
15 April 2008
Frnacistown — Although there were no witnesses to the attack, staff members at the Park reported seeing clouds of dust rising from the elephants grazing site late on Tuesday afternoon. Later in the evening, they noticed two female elephants running around in an agitated manner.
Park manager, Neil Whitson, was alerted when the two handlers and the elephants had still not returned by nightfall. The manager then organized a search team and when they reached the place where dust had earlier been seen, it became obvious that something terrible had happened.
Whitson maintained that upon arrival at the scene, they did not discover the bodies but found the four elephants, which resisted the team's efforts to drive them away. Since it was too dark and unsafe for the team to continue, they gave up the search around 3am on Wednesday.
Resuming early in the morning, they discovered the mutilated bodies, and the police were alerted around eight in the morning.
Old Naledi Police told The Voice that it appeared as if a caterpillar had de-bushed the place.
"Elephants are very cruel. They cut down the trees and piled branches on top of their victims," revealed Assistant Superintendent Balibadzi Boy.
He reported that bits of the men's clothing were found hanging from the trees and their bodies had been horribly crushed and mutilated.
The Reserve's public relation's officer, Jeroen Van Wilgen, said that following the accident, the elephants were returned to their barn, and the reserve was closed to the public. It was expected to be open today (Friday). He insisted that elephants were calm despite the tragedy.
The deceased were both part of the Serendib Elephant project, which operates within Mokolodi. The two handlers had been taking the elephants for walks in the park for a number of years, and even bathed them at times.
The four elephants, orphans from the Kruger National Park in South Africa, were brought to Mokolodi as calves 15 years ago. The elephants have been enjoyed by thousands of children who visit the Education Centre and hundreds of tourists who visit the reserve.
Van Wilgen maintained that there had never been an elephant attack before in their park.
However, the Police are worried that the elephants may attack again. "An elephant becomes even more dangerous after killing a human being," said Boy.
He didn't agree with the statement that the elephants had calmed down. He said that during their investigations they were forced to leave the area in a hurry after a park officer, who was watching for the elephants from the top of a tree, told them they were running back to the spot where the handlers had been killed.
Boy insisted that the management of the Reserve contact the department of Wildlife and get advice on how to deal with the elephants.
However, the Principal Public Relations officer at the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Tiro Kganelo, told The Voice that since the incident happened within an unprotected area, the department had no say over privately owned game animals.
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