Kruger Rangers Found a Suspected Poacher Dead After an Elephant Stomp at Stolsnek

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, SOUTH AFRICA — Rangers on an intelligence-led anti-poaching operation in October 2021 found a mangled male body at Stolsnek. Spokesman Isaac Phaahla told AFP an elephant had stomped a suspected poacher and that his accomplices had left him. «No animal was killed in the immediate vicinity,» he said. The phone survived. Rangers gave it to police. CBS News and Newsweek carried the quote.

This was the second such death in Kruger in 2021. In April a suspected rhino poacher died under a breeding herd near Phabeni after rangers spotted his group and the men ran the wrong way. Two incidents is a pattern. Phaahla’s standing warning did not change: people who come into Kruger to kill rhinos should expect the park to kill them back, with or without a ranger’s rifle.

Related: the Phabeni trampling and more Environment coverage.