Tourist on mission to watch animals in safari is trampled to death by elephant

Juliana Gle Tourneau, 64, of New Mexico, was riding with other people in a car that stopped before the Maramba Bridge on the Zambezi, right next to the falls, because a herd of elephants appeared nearby.

"They had parked on the road on the west side to observe the animals more closely when one of the elephants attacked their car, throwing Ms. Tourneau from it, and then trampled her," Southern Provincial Police Commissioner, Auxensio Daka, told the media on Friday.

Earlier this March, another American tourist died while on safari in Zambia's Kafue Park in the western part of the country. The elephant attacked the vehicle carrying them, overturned it, killed a man and injured five other people.

Zambian authorities have urged tourists to exercise extreme caution when observing wildlife across the country, recalling that guides usually instruct tourists on how to read an elephant's behavior.

Most of these animals' attacks are just a warning; an elephant usually makes a mock attack to check whether the person it encounters is a threat to it. However, if its ears are tilted back and its trunk is raised and curled inwards, it is better to get out of its sight as quickly as possible.

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This article was originally published on Onet Travel.