US millionaire big-game hunter dies after being crushed by elephants
4 hours ago
- #Wildlife Incident
- #Conservation Controversy
- #Big-Game Hunting
- American millionaire and big-game hunter Ernie Dosio, 75, died after being crushed by a group of elephants in Gabon during a hunting trip.
- Dosio and his guide encountered five female elephants with a calf in the Lope-Okanda rainforest, leading to the fatal incident; the guide was seriously injured.
- Dosio, a vineyard owner from California, had a long history of licensed trophy hunting, with many trophies from Africa and the U.S., often registered for conservation culling.
- Gabon is home to about 95,000 forest elephants, most of the world's highly endangered population of this species.
- Trophy hunting is a multimillion-dollar industry, popular among some wealthy Americans, with legal hunting tours in Africa drawing controversy and conservation debates.
- During Donald Trump's first term, a wildlife advisory board was formed to revise rules for importing African animal trophies but was disbanded in 2020 over legal and bias concerns.
- This incident follows another American hunter's death in South Africa last year, highlighting risks associated with big-game hunting.