After a man was killed by elephants while hunting in Africa, Wyomingites who’ve hunted there said wild elephants aren’t like what people see in circuses and zoos; they’re incredibly dangerous.
California vineyard owner Ernie Dosio loved hunting in Wyoming and became close friends with outfitter Dax McCarty.
McCarty told Cowboy State Daily that according to what he was told by Dosio’s family, Dosio died almost instantly when he was gored by a cow, or female elephant, on April 17 in the central African country of Gabon.
Both male and female African elephants have tusks.
Dosio and the party he was with weren’t hunting elephants, McCarty said. They were hunting duiker, a relatively small species of antelope.
Apparently, they encountered a group of cow elephants and their calves in thick cover, and the elephants charged them.
One of the professional hunters (PH) who was guiding Dosio was severely injured in the encounter, McCarty said.
‘Elephant’s Memory’ A Real Thing
Scott Weber of Cody has been on numerous safari hunts in Africa and told Cowboy State Daily that he and his party were charged by an enraged elephant in Zimbabwe in May 2025.
It took four shots from heavy rifles to bring the elephant down and it fell dead just feet away from one of the PH guides, Weber said.
“I shook for, like, six hours afterward. It was terrifying,” he said.
Outdoorsman Guy Eastman of Cody has hunted in Africa and told Cowboy State Daily that the legendary “elephant’s memory” is a real thing.
He recalled elephants in Tanzania “going absolutely nuts” when they saw a white vehicle.
That’s because years before, rangers in white vehicles had tranquilized them and then taken their babies to be transplanted elsewhere.
“The elephants never forgot that, and they got really pissed” at the mere sight of a white vehicle, Eastman said.
A Love For Wyoming
McCarty said he’s seen Dosio described as a “millionaire trophy hunter” in reports about his death.
That’s not a fair or accurate representation of who Dosio was, he said.
“Ernie would never let you know how much money he had,” McCarty said.
Dosio had done well for himself through hard work and wasn’t pretentious, McCarty said.
Dosio loved hunting and Wyoming was one of his favorite places to go. McCarty said he first knew Dosio as a hunting client, but over the years they became close friends.
McCarty said that Dosio was an ethical hunter.
“He grew up shooting does and eating everything that he shot,” McCarty said.
After Dosio’s Wyoming hunts, “he would pay to have every animal he killed processed. He would take the meat home and he would either eat the meat or hand it out to families that he knew needed it,” McCarty said.
“He dang sure respected the animals and hunted them with respect,” he said.
The meat from animals that Dosio shot in Africa was given to local villages, he added.
‘He Knew The Risks’
Hunting in Africa isn’t for the faint of heart, McCarty said. Along with large, aggressive animals, there are venomous snakes and other hazards.
“He (Dosio) knew the risks associated with the animals that live there,” McCarty said.
Running into elephants while hunting another species is much like running into a grizzly while hunting elk or deer in Wyoming, McCarty said.
In many instances, elephants will “bluff charge,” particularly if they have young to protect, just like a mother grizzly will do, he said.
On the day he was killed, Dosio was carrying a shotgun, which would have been perfectly adequate for duiker, but essentially useless against an elephant, he said.
However, the party included two PH guides, who were armed with heavy rifles, he said.
Upon encountering the elephants, the party immediately started backing away, which was the right thing to do, he said. They were initially only bluff charged by the adult females, he said.
However, the elephants kept charging and one of the PH guides was gashed open across his chest by an elephant’s tusk, McCarty said.
The other PH tried to push Dosio to safety behind a tree, but he was gored and killed, McCarty said.
Like Buffalo And Grizzly Combined
Unlike docile elephants in circuses or zoos, elephants in the wild are “ornery” and can be extremely dangerous said Eastman, who represents the third generation of the famous outdoor multimedia family that launched Eastman's Hunting Journal.
He likened elephants to some potentially dangerous Wyoming wildlife.
“They are almost like a combination of grizzlies and bison. They are as aggressive as our grizzlies and as capable of our buffalo,” Eastman said.
Elephants are amazingly fast and surprisingly stealthy, he said.
“You can be in the thickest brush and they can move through that brush silently. And, just like a grizzly bear can do, all of the sudden they’re right on you,” he said.
While elephants are considered endangered in specific parts of Africa, in many areas, they are overpopulated, Eastman said.
So, African wildlife officials will sometimes capture and relocate young elephants, or do other things that might irritate the huge animals.
“Humans tinkering with them can make them more aggressive,” he said.
Numerous African species are potentially dangerous, but rhinos and elephants are probably the worst, he added.
“The problem with elephants is, you’re not safe even in a vehicle. Same with rhinos. They’ll just roll a rig right over, if they can catch it,” Eastman said.
‘Here Comes Another Cow’
Weber said the elephant that charged his hunting party in 2025 came out of nowhere and apparently attacked for no reason.
After it was killed, they discovered that a few feet of the lower end of its trunk were missing, he said.
Weber said his initial thought was that the elephant’s trunk had been bitten off by a crocodile, but the PH suggested it might have gotten caught in a poacher’s snare.
“If it was a snare, then maybe that elephant equated people with its suffering,” he said. “Maybe it was just trying to get even.”
While they were examining that elephant’s carcass, “here comes another cow, with a calf, to get us,” he said.
Fortunately, that elephant was somewhat timid, and they drove it off by shouting at it.
Weber is planning another safari for summer 2027, hunting elephants, hippos and Cape buffalo in Zimbabwe.
Experience has taught him to stay sharp, and never second-guess the professional guides.
“The shit gets deep over there, man, and you have to do whatever the PH says,” Weber said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
