A tourist from New Mexico is killed by an elephant in Zambia

A tourist from New Mexico was killed in Zambia when an elephant attacked her, according to the police commissioner investigating the incident. She is the second tourist to be fatally attacked by an elephant in the southern African country this year.

The woman killed, Juliana G. Letourneau, 64, of Alburquerque, had just visited Victoria Falls, a 106-meter-high waterfall on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, and was on her way back to her hotel on Wednesday when the group she was traveling with encountered a herd of elephants on the road.

She and others got out of their vehicle to observe the animals, Auxensio Daka, police commissioner of Zambia’s southern province, said in a telephone interview on Saturday.

“They stopped to watch the elephants and unfortunately one of them charged at them while they were standing there watching,” Mr Daka said.

Mr Daka said Ms Letourneau was taken to a clinic in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park near Livingstone in Zambia, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. Her injuries included deep wounds to her right shoulder blade and forehead, a broken left ankle and a slight dent in her chest, a police statement said.

No further injuries were reported during the encounter with the elephant.

Ms. Letourneau’s brother said Saturday he did not know any details about the incident and declined to be interviewed. Other relatives could not be reached.

Last March, a 79-year-old American woman was on safari in Kafue National Park in a central region of western Zambia when an elephant attacked the tour group’s vehicle, media reports say.

However, human deaths from encounters with elephants are rare, experts say.

“This is really a freak accident,” said Nikhil Advani, executive director of the World Wildlife Fund, a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental and conservation issues, of the two incidents happening so close together. “It’s probably just some kind of confluence of unfortunate circumstances that led to this.”

The US State Department said in a statement on Friday that millions of Americans travel to areas where wildlife is present each year and that attacks by elephants and other wild animals on visitors to Zambia are rare.

Ms Letourneau’s death was first reported by the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation, a state-controlled news channel, which said that Livingstone, the town where the incident occurred, had seen an increase in human-wildlife encounters amid the country’s worst drought in four decades.

Climatic conditions are exacerbating food shortages in Zambia, which has one of the highest malnutrition rates in sub-Saharan Africa, and are pushing wildlife into human habitats in search of food and water, the report said.

Tourism in the game reserves, which cover about a third of Zambia, as well as in the numerous lakes and rivers and lush valleys, contributes an important part to the national economy.

Joyce Poole, co-founder and co-director of ElephantVoices, a non-profit organization that studies elephant behavior, said tourists are safest if they keep their distance from elephants. She added that sometimes there can be a “culture of aggression” that stems from a region’s elephant history, such as in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, which experienced decades of war and poaching in the 20th century.

“Elephants reacted to vehicles in a certain way,” Dr. Poole said of her research from Gorongosa. “This behavior was then observed by younger elephants, imitated by younger elephants and passed down in families, so to speak.” There have been several poaching crises in Zambia, she noted.

Dr Poole said that for the safety of visitors it was important to “find a reputable company and drivers who are not just racing around to get the best shot”.

Experts advise that visitors to wilderness areas should also be cautious and only admire the animals from a distance.

“As with all wild animals, they will not bother you or want to interact with you as long as you keep a safe distance from them,” said Dr. Advani.