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.