A 29-year-old American researcher has been killed in Zambia after she was trampled by an elephant.
The woman, named by local media as Margarita Metallinou, was working in the Kafue National Park in central Zambia with two male colleagues when the accident happened at around 1.30pm last Tuesday.
Police said that the three were unaccompanied by game rangers. Lombe Kamukoshi, police commissioner for Zambia’s Central Province, said Dr Metallinou saw the animal and screamed, alerting her colleagues who managed to run away as it charged.
One of her colleagues, named as 24-year-old Jeffrey Weinell, gave a statement to police about what happened.
Dr Metallinou, a post-doctoral researcher at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, had written academic papers mainly on desert-dwelling reptiles such as geckos and snakes in the Middle East and North Africa.
Before moving to the US, she studied at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and undertook a Master of Science and wrote a PhD at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE) in Barcelona.
In a statement, the IBE said she was devoted to her field. “She always showed an enthusiastic behaviour towards scientific challenges and was able to create a stimulating atmosphere around her.
"Although she is not anymore among us, her memories will live on.”

A bull elephant walks through the Zambezi river (Alamy)
The exact circumstances of the attack are not yet known, but male bull elephants are known to be particularly aggressive when in “musth” – a condition where the levels of its reproductive hormones increase dramatically.
In April, a well-known game hunter named Ian Gibson was killed in neighbouring Zimbabwe when he was charged and trampled to death by a young bull elephant in musth while scouting for an American client.
An American tourist was killed by a lion at a safari park outside Johannesburg in June.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/zambia/11721027/US-researcher-killed-by-elephant-in-Zambia.html

okay

Really sad

Ndo

Hmmmnn, it was elephantuicidal

Reminds me of a horror story by a comedian called FriedPlantain

FriedPlantain:
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In 1995, Peter Davies was on holiday in Nigeria after graduating from Louisiana State University .

On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee, inspected the elephants foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.

The elephant turned to face the man and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the University of Ibadan Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1995, Peter could not help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn't the same _fucking elephant.


This is for everyone who sends me those heart-warming bullsh1t stories. _Fuck you all!

FriedPlantain
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