Ranger charges elephant

15 May 2013 - 03:22 By Sapa-AP
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A safari guide on foot charged at an elephant in the Kruger National Park while his colleagues whooped and laughed at the foolhardy stunt - which cost the man his job when a video of the incident was posted online.

The episode was a reversal of the occasional tales of elephants charging tourist vehicles that got too close to them, and a variation of the "man bites dog" saying, originally a reference to how the unusual constitutes news.

In the video, the elephant is seen to be at first standing its ground, ears flapping, as the guide races towards it. At one point, the guide falls into tall grass only metres away from the animal.

"Run! Run at him!" shouts one of the onlookers. The elephant eventually retreats and the guide saunters back to his vehicle as his friends - one apparently holding a beer bottle - cheer and guffaw.

Singita, a safari lodge company that operates in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, said on Monday that it had investigated the "disturbing" video showing off-duty guides in a vehicle and one of them confronting the elephant, which Singita said was extremely agitated by the encounter.

"The guide is no longer employed by Singita and further disciplinary procedures are in progress with regard to others involved," the company said.

In a statement posted on Sunday on Facebook, a man identified as Brian Thomas Masters said he was the guide filmed in the confrontation with the elephant. He expressed remorse for what he described as "harmful and dangerous" behaviour.

Masters asked readers to vent their anger on him, not the company that had employed him, and asked for forgiveness.

"Look carefully at yourself and ask if there was anything you have done in the past that, had it been caught on camera, could have had negative consequences," he wrote.

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