American Big Game Hunter Trampled to Death by Elephants in Gabon Rainforest

An American big game hunter has been killed by elephants during a licensed hunting expedition in Gabon, in an incident that has drawn international attention to the risks of hunting in Central Africa’s dense rainforests.

Ernie Dosio, 75, a California-based vineyard owner, was trampled to death on April 17 while being guided through thick forest in the Lope-Okanda rainforest on a hunt targeting the elusive yellow-backed duiker, a shy forest antelope. The expedition was estimated to cost around $40,000.

The pair inadvertently stumbled into the path of five female elephants with a calf, which appeared concealed behind dense foliage. Feeling threatened, the herd immediately charged. The professional hunter accompanying Dosio was attacked first and lost his rifle in the undergrowth, leaving Dosio with only a shotgun.

Safari operator Collect Africa confirmed that its client had been killed and that its professional hunter was left severely injured in the attack. The matter is being handled in coordination with the United States Embassy in Gabon and Dosio’s family in California.

Dosio owned Pacific AgriLands Inc., a Modesto, California vineyard land management company overseeing a 12,000-acre vineyard. An experienced hunter with decades of expeditions across Africa and the United States, he had previously hunted elephants, leopard, rhino, buffalo and lion. He was also an active member of the Sacramento Safari Club and held a long-standing leadership role within the Elks Lodge network.

A retired hunter in Cape Town who knew Dosio told the Daily Mail that all of his hunts were strictly licensed and registered as conservation culls. “Ernie was a very well-known and popular hunter in the US and in Africa and a very keen conservationist,” the source said, adding that the incident had been deeply felt on both sides of the Atlantic.

Gabon’s dense forests are home to around 95,000 endangered forest elephants, representing approximately 60 per cent of the world’s remaining population. The United States Embassy in Gabon is arranging the return of Dosio’s remains to California.