A man hunting elephants is killed in an elephant stampede, officials say

An Argentinian man hunting elephants in Namibia over the weekend died when one of the animals trampled him.

Jose Monzalvez, 46, was hunting in a private wildlife area northwest of the small town of Kalkfeld, the Namibia Press Agency reported.

This follows the death in May of well-known South African hunter Theunis Botha, 51, in Zimbabwe. Botha, leading a hunting group, fired at a group of elephants stampeding toward him when an elephant lifted him off the ground with its trunk.

A member of the hunting party shot the elephant, and it fell on Botha, crushing him to death.

Monzalvez was with another hunter from Argentina and three Namibians when he was killed, the Namibia Press Agency reported.

According to police, the elephants saw the hunters from a distance and chased them. The elephants charged at the hunters before they could find a safe spot from which to take aim.

Monzalvez had a hunting permit, local media reported.

The World Wildlife Fund lists African elephants as “vulnerable,” with 415,000 now living in the wild, down from 3 million to 5 million a century ago because they are hunted.

This story was originally published August 14, 2017 at 4:21 PM with the headline "A man hunting elephants is killed in an elephant stampede, officials say."