Overview

• Footage from June shows a female elephant in Botswana’s Okavango Delta charging a flat-bottomed vessel after the guide maneuvered too close while the boat’s engine stalled.
• The elephant snared the bow with its tusks and hoisted the aluminium craft several feet before its tusks slipped free and it disengaged without capsizing the boat.
• All eight British tourists aboard escaped uninjured despite being thrown from their benches into waters known to harbor crocodiles and hippos.
• Critics have pointed to the tour operator’s proximity to feeding wildlife and questions over the boat’s mechanical maintenance as factors that heightened the danger.
• The incident has prompted renewed calls for stricter safety protocols, reliable equipment checks and enforced viewing distances on guided wildlife excursions.