No, not really. The actual answer is 'big angry herbivores':
Deaths on safari are on the rise, with several reports in the last 18 months alone. The most recent case of this was in July 2025, when a British tourist and her friend from New Zealand were killed by a charging elephant during a 'sunrise safari walk' in Zambia. In July 2024, a Spanish tourist was horrifically crushed to death in front of his screaming fiancee by an angry herd of elephants after he got out of his car to take photographs in a South African game reserve.
*sigh*
Two months prior to that, Lisa Manders, 70, from the US state of Connecticut, was killed by a hippo in Zambia, while out on a ‘bush walk’ during a dream safari trip with her husband Craig. And in April last year, a crazed bull elephant attacked tourists on safari in Zambia, leaving an American woman dead, after chasing a safari truck for more than half a mile through a national park.
I guess not having any weapons for self-defence on these trips (and the men able to wield them) is asking for trouble.
In the past three months, even safari workers have faced with aggressive wildlife.
Well, pretty sure it'll be in the job description...
'African safaris have become extremely popular, and many top destinations are sold out months in advance. ‘This has led to a proliferation of many smaller operators, lodges, and even artificial safari parks or “game reserves”, closer to urban populations. ‘Some tourists unfortunately take shortcuts and book with less reputable operators, or choose cheaper options on the outskirts of recognised game reserves, where human-wildlife interaction is more prevalent and safari activities are perhaps more risky.’
Couple that with the modern generation's stunningly blase attitides to risk, and it's a recipe for disaster:
'There’s also the fact that safari lodges have become increasingly luxurious and glamorous, which could potentially dull a visitor's sense of danger. 'Social media likely plays a role too, by exposing people more regularly to the idea of what's out there.'
The social media images of an enraged 6 ton jumbo crushing a vehicle as if it were a beer can don't seem to have been viewed often enough then.
5 comments:
I disagree that the modern generations are blasé about risk. I think they are unable to recognise, judge or evaluate risk. Blame their education, their protected upbringing.
Missed the bit about it all being caused by 'climate change' - if it's not that, then it must be rank stupidity. Darwin wins again.
Stanley Holloways " Albert and the Lion " needs updating and playing to some of these people. One problem is , that life has become so comfortable for most people , they have lost any sense of danger and self preservation.
That’s what comes of the cult of the self(ie) and of reducing school reading lists to an endless conveyer belt of preachy misery narratives about inner-city violence, racism or teenage angst.
I have never forgotten the hunting expedition described in ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ (Class reader in 2nd form):
‘Khiva, the Zulu boy, saw his master fall, and brave lad as he was, turned and flung his assegai straight into the elephant’s face. It stuck in its trunk. With a scream of pain, the brute seized the poor Zulu, hurled him to the earth, and placing one huge foot on to his body about the middle, twined its trunk round his upper part and tore him in two.’
That one paragraph alone would get the book banned from today’s classrooms and libraries on three separate counts of inappropriate or offensive content.
Compare, in safe UK, with eejits strolling through a field of cows with calves while determined to keep a tight hold of a dog.
The cow sees the dog as a wolf. Plus the Warble Gloaming ( RIP Granda) will have fried the poor cow's brain, causing it to think that the biped is a wolf that walks on hind legs.
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