Two women died on safari last week — are these trips becoming more dangerous?

Times

09-07-2025

Last Thursday two 67-year-old tourists — Janet Easton from the UK and Alison Taylor from New Zealand — were killed by an elephant while on a walking safari in Zambia with the British tour operator Expert Africa. The deaths serve as a reminder that, despite the skill of safari companies in bringing luxury into wild places, the African bush is a place where a human life can be taken in the blink of an eye.
The women were on a guided walk in the South Luangwa National Park, a 3,490 square mile wilderness of riverside forest, mopani woodlands and open grasslands in which small groups of tourists are led on gentle four-hour hikes through the bush. They are escorted by a wildlife police officer with a firearm at the front, followed by a professional guide and at least one assistant tracker at the back. The weapon is always considered a last resort, because the most important part of the guide's job is to anticipate and avoid dangerous situations.
Chris McIntyre, managing director of Expert Africa, says: 'This was a deeply tragic and highly unusual incident in one of Africa's most remote wilderness areas. Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of the travellers involved. Our priority has been supporting the families in every way possible. We remain in close contact, doing what we can to assist them. We are liaising closely with the local authorities, our partners on the ground and the relevant consular services to support those involved and to understand how this tragic event occurred. We will, of course, co-operate fully with any official investigations that take place.'
Conceived by the British guide Norman Carr in the 1950s, the concept of the walking safari was first offered in the South Luangwa. In the 75 years since, a highly specialised guiding style has evolved, earning the respect of the guiding community across Africa.
But while those responsible for bringing guests back to camp never underplay the dangers of the bush, tour operators often do, using descriptions that border on the language of Disney, in which the wild has become a benign setting for smiling cartoon animals, or that echo the celebrity voiceovers of wildlife documentaries that turn predators and prey into the cuddly stars of contrived narratives in which every cub or chick has a happy ending. That sort of talk encourages tourists to drop their guard and ignore the primal instinct to be hyperalert to the ever present risk.
Sudden death on safari is not uncommon, with at least nine tourists killed on African safaris in the past 18 months. They include the Namibian businessman Bernd Kebbel, who was mauled by a lion while camping in the Hoanib Valley in northwest Namibia, while the South African nationals Ronel Viljoen and Shaik Ahmed and the Spanish tourist Carlos Luna were killed by elephants at national parks in South Africa. Last year the American citizens Gail Mattson and Juliana Tourneau were also victims of elephants in Zambia — the latter in the same month that Lisa Manders, also from the US, was killed by a hippo on the Lower Zambezi. But it's not always the wildlife that is lethal: this year two tourists in Tanzania — one Chinese and the other Israeli — were killed in accidents involving safari vehicles.
• Kenya travel guide
Is this apparent increase an anomaly or a trend? Conservationists fear the latter. In the past century the population of Africa has increased from 140 million to 1.4 billion, putting immense pressure on wildlife habitats. Longer, harsher droughts brought about by climate change have changed wildlife behaviour too, leading to more human-wildlife conflict (HWC) as species such as elephants and hippos compete with people for water and land.
In the Maralal community in the Samburu county of Kenya, one elephant has reportedly killed seven villagers in the past four years. In Zimbabwe 18 people died as a result of HWC in the first four months of this year, while villagers on the Zambian side of Malawi's Kasungu National Park have shot and eaten elephants that devastated crops. Tourists enter these same war zones and, while most will have a wonderful experience on guided game drives and expertly led walks, a few will lose their lives.
Some don't help themselves. The lure of the selfie and the desire for social-media recognition often seems stronger than the instinct for self-preservation, especially in self-drive destinations such as Kruger National Park in South Africa and Etosha National Park in Namibia, where I've watched tourists approach lions, elephants and — in one case — a pack of spotted hyenas on a kill so they can record content. I've seen people reach out to touch leopards on game drives, wander with their heads down in their phones on bush walks and drift down to dinner at camps and lodges unescorted, in airy defiance of the rule that you do not leave your quarters without calling for a guard.
These are the types of tourists who sometimes end up in the newspapers, and I could just as easily have been one of them. The early years of my career reporting from Africa were a series of self-inflicted narrow escapes, mostly from elephants — but seeing what these animals can do to a human in the blink of an eye changed that. As the veteran guide Chris Bakkus once told me: 'You can be stupid in the bush, or you can be old. You cannot be both.'
• Tanzania travel guide
Risk is present on all safaris and if your tour operator tells you otherwise, ask for your money back. Elephants, hippos, buffaloes and rhinos will kill you if you alarm them. Big cats, crocodiles and snakes statistically pose less of a threat, but all should be respected, and while your safety on safari is overseen by your guide, the disclaimer forms we sign at camp check-ins make it clear that it's your life, your responsibility. So if you don't feel comfortable with any safari activity, don't do it.
Remember that — just like in Bognor, Benidorm or Bhutan — safety in the bush can never be guaranteed, and nor should it. 'Safari evolved from the days of explorers making journeys into the unknown, braving malaria, elephant attacks, hostile tribesmen and snakes,' says Chris Fox, owner of the Mwagusi safari camp in Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. 'Such days, spent far from the mundane routines of civilisation, ended with stories told beside the campfire, under star-studded night skies while lions roared in the distance.
'It's that beauty — combined with the frisson of risk — that keeps bringing us back to the bush. Safari without the element of danger is like tonic without the gin.'