A South African “big-game” hunter was killed in Zimbabwe on May 19. Theunis Botha ran his own hunting-safari business and was known to lead big-game hunting trips. The 51-year-old Botha and his group seem to have “stumbled” upon a breeding herd of elephants, and according to the Telegraph, things went sideways very quickly.
Three of the elephant cows charged the hunters. Mr Botha fired a shot from his rifle but he was caught by surprise by a fourth cow that stormed them from the side, the Afrikaans news site Netwerk24 reported.
One of the hunters shot the elephant after she lifted Botha with her trunk. The elephant then collapsed on top of Mr Botha, who has five children with his wife Carike Botha.
Both the elephant and Mr. Botha died. Botha is reported to have made trips to the United States searching for wealthy big-game patrons.
An important note here is that Botha was not leading an illegal hunt like the crew who ran afoul of the lions they were hunting a couple of years ago.