Four Tourists Survive Elephant Canoe Attack in Botswana

On Sept. 27 in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, a bull elephant charged two dugout makoro canoes carrying four tourists (British and American), flipping the boats and plunging the occupants into crocodile‑infested water. The attack reportedly began after the canoes drifted too close to a cow and her two calves; footage shows guides attempting to back‑pole away and then running to the riverbank, leaving the tourists in the water. Video circulated online shows the bull returning to strike one woman with its trunk and hold her underwater for about ten seconds before losing track of her; all four later reached shore shaken but largely uninjured. A former game ranger and witnesses criticized the guides for misjudging safe distance, saying the group had a "very lucky escape." Tourists lost camera equipment and phones during the incident, and some tour operators declined to comment.