Overview

• Video and eyewitness accounts released Oct. 7–8 show a Sept. 27 encounter in the Okavango Delta where a mother elephant rushed through reeds and overturned two canoes.
• British and American tourists were tossed into the water, and a woman was briefly pinned underwater by the elephant’s trunk before resurfacing and surviving.
• Survivors Jeff Melvin and Larry Unrein said they did not see the mother’s calves concealed in tall grass before the charge.
• Guides helped the group escape, shouting to disperse the herd as they pulled people from the water.
• Zoo Miami’s Ron Magill said maternal elephants are exceptionally dangerous and noted the water likely prevented fatal crushing injuries.