Tuesday, April 21, 2026 - A safari-park owner who once said he would rather be k!lled by an elephant than to shoot one was fatally trampled by an elephant at his South African wildlife reserve.
Gary Freeman, 65, an experienced safari tour guide, was
leading a small group of tourists at Klaserie Private Nature Reserve in the
Limpopo province on April 9 when the elephant suddenly charged at him, the
Daily Mail reported.
“Gary tried to break the charge, but he never fired a shot.
The elephant was very quickly on him, and it was, as you imagine, not
pleasant,” a source said.
“There is nothing anyone can do to stop six tons of angry
elephant. Fortunately, it was all over quickly,” the source said.
The four tourists on the tour helped get Freeman into a
vehicle and “rushed him to try and get medical attention, but nothing could be
done,” the source said.
“He had succumbed to his dreadful injuries,” the source
said.
A previous visitor to the 148,000-acre park said Freeman had
a deep connection to elephants.
“In the past, we have heard Gary speak of his deep respect
and love for the elephants,” wrote Judy Connors of Johannesburg in a
Facebook tribute.
“He said he would rather be k!lled by an elephant than shoot
one. Perhaps this is what I want to believe, but there must have been a special
bond, soul-to-soul, for this elephant to be the chosen one tasked with his
deliverance,” Connors said.
Freeman graduated from college with a mechanical-engineering
degree but became a ranger and ran the safari company he co-owned for 33
years.
He co-founded Klaserie in 1969, when 36 farm owners merged
to create one of South Africa’s biggest Big Five game reserves.
Police in Limpopo have opened an inquest into what happened,
and experts have been called in to assess whether the elephant is a threat to
others.
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