Taunted Tusker Killed

This story is being posted here, not because it is cryptozoological, but because it appears to relate to the recent discussion regarding the San Francisco Zoo tiger event.

Tusker, a large 50 year old bull African elephant (seen in this October 2007 photograph) was shot dead on Sunday, January 6, 2008 at Charara camp on the shores of Lake Kariba, 370 kilometres northwest of Harare, Zimbabwe.

The elephant had trampled several cars at a safari camp after being provoked by revellers at a new year party, say conservationists in Zimbabwe.

Johnny Rodrigues, of the independent Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, disputed a claim by park rangers that the one-tusked elephant had become a danger to people and had been classified as a “problem animal”.

“Tusker was the resident Charara elephant … he was a legend and a favourite of tourists and locals alike,” said Mr Rodrigues, who claimed that music from the party could be heard for miles around and that witnesses reported that drunken party-goers had taunted the elephant by throwing bottles, lighting fireworks, flashing car lights and even plucking hairs from its tail and slapping its rump.

“Despite this senseless abuse, we have had no reports of Tusker hurting anyone, which is testament to his basic good nature. It is shocking that these parties where drugs and alcohol are abused should be permitted in wildlife areas,” he added.

Sources: Angus Shaw, Associated Press, Independent Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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