BBC Guide Killed by Stampeding Elephant
Posted by: Loren Coleman on November 1st, 2009
A British guide for a BBC nature program for kids has died after being trampled by an elephant.
The program was tracing the footsteps of explorer David Livingstone in Africa, who actually did bring back cryptozoological stories. Now a technical advisor on the show is dead in a tragic accident.
(The journals of David Livingstone, for example, included information on a mystery snake, the Crowing Crested Cobra, a scarlet-headed serpent up to 20 feet long that has males that crow like roosters. The cryptid snake is said to have extremely toxic venom and attacks people from trees.)
Former army officer Anton Turner, 38, was helping with the filming of an episode of the CBBC series “Serious Explorers in Tanzania,” Friday, October 30, 2009, when the attack happened. Turner served in the first Gulf War before moving to Tanzania to become a game hunter. He later established the Selous ecotourism reserve, which takes groups on safaris to photograph wildlife.
Turner had taken the crew to an area known as the Mburika Mountains, situated in the 21,000-square-mile Selous game reserve, which is not known as a habitat for elephants.
Anton Turner, founder, owner and guide, Selous Game Reserve, is shown in an earlier photograph, guiding Namrata Dalwani, director, Krisia Holidays.
A BBC spokeswoman said that Turner was mortally injured after being charged by an elephant.
A doctor was traveling with the expedition and treated Turner at the scene, but he died shortly after the incident.
Three children were also with the party at the time of the elephant charge, but were declared safe and have been airlifted from the area.
The BBC spokeswoman said the children’s safety remains the channel’s priority.
“We are also consulting their parents and production of the program has ceased,” she said
“Anton was an extremely experienced expedition safari and wildlife ranger and former Army officer who had worked with the BBC in the past.
“We understand at this stage that he was charged by an elephant and was mortally injured. We would like to extend our deepest sympathy to Anton’s family and friends.”
Turner’s family, including his fiancée who was visiting relatives in Britain at the time of his death, have been informed. His pregnant fiancée, reportedly, is absolutely devastated.
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.
Sad and tragic story, condolences to his family.
RIP, Mr. Turner.