Elephant Attacks Canoas Carrying Tourists in Botswana‘s Okavango Delta
A group of British tourists experienced a terrifying ordeal last week in Botswana’s Okavango Delta when an elephant attacked the canoes they were traveling in, capsizing them in waters known to be inhabited by crocodiles.
Video footage of the incident, released by the newspaper “Sun,” shows the elephant charging towards the vessels and ramming them twice. In one attack, the animal struck a woman with it’s trunk, attempting to submerge her. The blow narrowly missed causing serious injury from the elephant’s tusks.
“She was lucky not to have been injured by the fangs of the pachyderm,” said Kakwele Sinyina, a former South African ranger who reviewed the video.
Guides steered the canoes to shore for safety while the tourists scrambled out of the water. despite the force of the attack, no one was injured.
Experts believe the elephant’s behavior was a defensive reaction, attributing it to the guides navigating the canoes too close to the animal and its group.
The Okavango Delta, the largest inland delta in the world, is a unique ecosystem formed where the Cubango River meets a tectonic plate in the Kalahari Desert. The water that flows into the region evaporates, never reaching a sea or ocean. The area is also home to crocodiles and, in some areas, hippos.
