Elephant rams, flips over safari jeep in South Africa

Unprovoked female elephant attack at Kruger National Park is a first for professional guide Johann Lombard in 23 years of guided safaris

August 29, 2013 by David Strege

Johann Lombard has been a professional safari guide for 23 years, but he’s never had an elephant do what it did while on a guided safari in Kruger National Park in South Africa. An unprovoked female elephant charged toward his group and then smashed into and flipped over the vehicle in what was called “an elephant encounter of a lifetime.” Watch the exclusive footage provided by JukinVideo on YouTube:

At first, one elephant makes a charge and abruptly stops, along with a second elephant. A third elephant charges right past the other two and doesn’t stop, despite Lombard’s best efforts to “talk elephant.”

Evidently, “no, no” and “come on, move!” and “easy, easy” and “hey, hey, hey” doesn’t always work to stop charging elephants.

Mike Skogmo of JukinVideo in an email to GrindTV Outdoor confirmed that the jeep flipped over but was otherwise undamaged.

“Despite the absence of any provocation and all the professional precautions taken, this female elephant not only charges his vehicle but smashes right into it,” the JukinVideo website explains. “Fortunately no one was injured during this event and the elephant eventually walked away unharmed.”
But certainly nerves of the three occupants in the vehicle were a bit frayed.