Professional hunter crushed to death by falling elephant

A professional South African hunter was killed by a falling elephant while on a safari in Zimbabwe. It comes just weeks after his missing friend was found to have been eaten by crocodiles.

Theunis Botha, 51, was on a game hunt in Gwai, Zimbabwe with a group of hunters on Friday when they stumbled upon a herd of breeding elephants, according to Netwerk24.

Three elephant cows stormed the group and Botha reportedly began shooting at them. A fourth elephant then charged the hunters from the side in a flank attack and caught Botha in her trunk.

When the animal lifted him up, another hunter in the group shot her. As the mortally wounded elephant cow fell, she incidentally landed on Botha, fatally squashing the husband and father-of-five.

Botha had run a hunting company, Game Hounds Safaris, which often recruits wealthy Americans to partake in traditional European-style “Monteria hunts” in South Africa, reports Netwerk 24.

Botha was a “good friend” of Scott van Zyl, a fellow professional South African hunter who was killed last month while also on a hunting trip in Zimbabwe, according to News 24.

An extensive search for Zyl, who went missing on April 7, led rescuers to believe that the father-of-two had been eaten by crocodiles after his backpack was found on the banks of the Limpopo River.

Samples taken from the stomachs of two slain crocodiles were later found to match Zyl’s DNA. Part of a Cat boot similar to the ones Zyl was wearing at the time of his disappearance was also found in the stomach of a third crocodile that was shot during the search.