Hunting has been a part of many people’s lives since they were very young and some families may have done it for generations. Many of those individuals have respect for the hunt and they don’t necessarily do it for sport. Other people, however, only do it for sport and they are often the ones who draw the most criticism. A big-game hunter from South Africa, Theunis Botha, is one of those individuals. He would’ve been happy to have been remembered for the animals that he killed but rather, he would always be remembered as being the hunter that was crushed by an elephant.
For hunters who are interested in going after big game in Africa, they will often go after the ‘Big Five’. The big game hunters will target elephants, Cape Buffalo, lions, rhinos, and even leopards, not because they are trying to put food on the table but because they want the adrenaline rush. The author of “Big Game and Big Game Rifles,” John Taylor, said that hunting big game in Africa is one of the most dangerous parts of the sport. Botha was known for his hunting and as a 51-year-old hunter, he looked back on his first kill in 1989.
Since Botha was known as a great hunter, he made a lot of money on hunting tours and he used the money to fund his education. He had already earned his degree in psychology and anthropology and he started a hunting farm along with his wife, Carike. They had hunting ranches in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa and he had been a part of the hunting sport for close to three decades.
On one particular day, he was heading up a tour for hunters at Hwange National Park in Western Zimbabwe when a herd of breeding elephants caught them by surprise. Three elephants chased after the hunters and although he tried to shoot them, the fourth one slammed him in the side, lifted the hunter with her trunk, and when she was shot, she collapsed on Brotha.
Nobody would’ve been able to survive being crushed by an elephant like this. Theunis Botha lived his life for the hunt and ultimately, it cost him his life. Watch more in the following video: