By Nneka Nwogwugwu
A 71-year-old South African tourist has been killed by an elephant “in full view” of his adult son, days after another fatality in a separate park, Zimbabwe’s parks agency reported.
Michael Walsh was on a morning walk with his son when the elephant attacked.
Mr Walsh was a “loyal” tourist to Mana Pools National Park where he was killed.
He is the second person killed by an elephant this week in Zimbabwe.
A “tuskless” female elephant at Mana Pools National Park charged at Michael Walsh and his 41-year-old son as they took a morning walk in the park, Tinashe Farawo, spokesman for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority told The Associated Press.
The pair had left their car about 40 metres from the scene of the incident.
“Because of age, unfortunately, the old man couldn’t escape to the vehicle. His son watched as the elephant killed his father,” Mr Farawo said.
Mr Walsh, a veterinarian from Cape Town, was a “loyal tourist” who had been visiting Mana Pools “almost every year” for the past 35 years, according to Mr Farawo.
Mana Pools is a UNESCO World Heritage Site along the Zambezi River and surrounding flood plain which is teeming with elephants and other wildlife.
“We are extremely concerned because two people have been killed in one week alone,” Mr Farawo said, referring to an earlier fatality in which an anti-poaching coordinator with a conservation group was trampled to death by an elephant in Victoria Falls in western Zimbabwe.
The Victoria Falls Anti-Poaching Unit, a non-governmental organisation, said an elephant bull charged from about 120 meters away and seized the man and killed him.
Zimbabwe’s national parks and environmental groups are reporting increasing cases of conflict between humans and wildlife in recent years.
