An American millionaire big-game hunter has died after being crushed by a group of elephants during a hunting expedition in Gabon. Ernie Dosio, a 75-year-old vineyard owner from California, was hunting yellow-backed duiker, an antelope species, in the central African country when the incident occurred last Friday. While in the Lope-Okanda rainforest, he and his guide unexpectedly encountered five female elephants accompanied by a calf.
Details of the Incident
According to reports, the elephants were surprised by the presence of Dosio and his guide, leading to the fatal attack. The guide sustained serious injuries during the encounter. Safari operator Collect Africa confirmed the death of its client, as reported by the Daily Mail. Dosio was a familiar name within the Sacramento Safari Club and had built an extensive collection of hunting trophies over the years, including elephants and lions.
Background of the Hunter
Dosio was the owner of Pacific AgriLands Inc, a company managing 12,000 acres of vineyard land in Modesto, offering services and equipment financing to wine producers. A retired hunter who knew him stated, “Ernie has been hunting since he could hold a rifle and has many trophies from Africa and the US. Although many disagree with big-game hunting, all Ernie’s hunts were strictly licensed and above board and were registered as conservation in culling animal numbers.”
Conservation and Trophy Hunting Context
Gabon’s forests shelter approximately 95,000 forest elephants, most of the species’ global population, which are considered highly endangered. Every year, clients of the trophy-hunting industry claim the lives of tens of thousands of wild animals across the world. Legal hunting tours in Africa are popular with some wealthy Americans, including Donald Trump Jr, who was pictured holding a severed elephant’s tail more than a decade ago.
International trophy hunting is a multimillion-dollar industry. In South Africa, estimates for the industry’s worth range from $100m in 2005 to $68m in 2012 and $120m in 2015, according to the EMS Foundation. During his first presidential term, Donald Trump created a controversial wildlife advisory board to help rewrite federal rules for importing the heads and hides of African elephants, lions, and rhinoceroses. The board was disbanded in 2020 after lawsuits alleging it was an illegal, biased panel stacked with trophy hunters rather than conservationists.
Return of Remains
Officials from the US embassy in Gabon are now coordinating the return of Dosio’s remains to California. Last year, another American game hunter was killed by a buffalo he was stalking during a hunting expedition in South Africa.
