i received this email today from The Hide management:

Public Statement No. 2

We would like to thank our Agents, Associates and Friends of The Hide for their overwhelming support in the form of emails, telephone calls and prayers, after the tragic accident at The Hide. We apologize in advance if we have not got back to you all individually.

Unfortunately, the extremely tragic and freak accident at The Hide has resulted in many incorrect rumours. We would like to put an end to the rumours by giving a more detailed description of exactly what happened. We have extracted the following information from statements and feedback from the investigation into the accident.

The Parker family had been at The Hide for one night and were scheduled to stay for one more night. On the morning of the 24th of March, the family went on an early morning bush walk before breakfast with one of our freelance professional armed guides.
The same professional guide took the Parker family on a game drive after breakfast, along one of the most common routes we use, past Kennedy 1 waterhole and onto Kennedy 2 waterhole. At Kennedy 2, the guide Andy Trivella and the Parkers, Kelvin, Veronica and Charlotte stopped for drinks to watch game come to the waterhole. The guide pointed out that an elephant bull was coming down to the waterhole on the far side and offered the Parkers the opportunity to walk closer to get a better view of the bull.
The family followed the guide on a long circular route around the waterhole to get closer, always keeping a fair distance between them and the bull. The group stopped behind a large termite mound to observe the bull. At this stage the bull was still some distance away and was lazily feeding along a common elephant path, walking right to left to the waterhole (the elephant path ran in front and across the group some 100m away). The elephant left the path coming towards the termite mound still feeding and unaware of the group, nevertheless gaining ground slowly. At this point the guide noticed that the elephant bull was in musth (A periodic condition characterized by aggressive behaviour and an increase in the reproductive hormone testosterone.) He advised the Parkers that it was time to leave and they started backing away from the termite mound to some bush cover, keeping the termite mound between themselves and the elephant.
The bull must have picked up movement or a scent even though the wind direction was in the groups favour. The bull then mock charged toward the termite mound (a mock charge is easily distinguished from a full charge because the ears are kept open and forward. A full charge is when the elephant tucks its ears back, drops its head with the trunk between its legs). The guide stepped out and shouted, which stopped the bull, it mock charged again and he shouted again stopping the elephant, the bull then continued with its charge. The guide fired a warning shot above the bull’s head but the shot did not deter the bull. The guide did not manage to discharge another shot as the elephant ran him over. The bull went onto to knock Charlotte over as she was not far behind the guide, killing her instantly. The bull then chased Kelvin for some distance as he ran away in a zig zag fashion. Kelvin noticed the bull gaining ground on him but for some reason the bull stopped and went back towards Veronica who must have stopped running. The bull charged Veronica, killing her instantly. The elephant then moved off disappearing into the bush. Kelvin was not injured during this incident and Andy, the guide had no major physical injuries.

We chartered a light aircraft to fly Kelvin and his family via Bulawayo back to Harare. With the invaluable help of the British Embassy (Sarah Mannell), pathologists, funeral services, we managed to repatriate Kelvin and family back to the UK on the early morning flight of the 28th of March.

Andy, the guide, was taken to hospital in Bulawayo where he received treatment. Andy was released from hospital a week after the accident.

Kelvin has indicated that he would like to donate and replace the noisy diesel Lister pump at Kennedy 2 with a solar pump and name it in memory of Charlotte. He is also establishing a scholarship foundation called “The Charlotte Parker Foundation for Education in Southern Africa”. He is seeking help from anyone interested and who has experience in setting up such a foundation. Anyone interested in helping Kelvin, please contact Gavin at The Hide (gavin@thehide.co.zw).

As of the 20th of April 2007, The Hide has commenced walking in the Park again.

We hope the above will put to rest the rumours that are circulating.

Kind Regards

The Management and Staff at the Hide Safaris

a perfect example for being unable to estimate animal behaviour even for a professional guide and
secondly for the quick transition from mock to serious charge!!!

Pippa,
I disagree completely with you. This is a problem of strict regulation enforced by public attention IMHO. In Zimbabwe, any photo guide that shoots an elephant claiming self defence when the elephant is judged to have been more than 10 metres away will suffer prosecution under the guides regulations. That is right, 10 METRES!!! What is 10 metres in an elephant charge? They cover that distance in under 1.5 sec! I speculate, but am convinced, that this played in Andy's mind when he shot a "warning" shot to try to turn the bull. You can bet your last dollar that if such a regulation DID NOT exist Andy would have shot "to stop" the charging bull and the outcome could have been different.

We weren't there so it is impossible to judge or to pass blame. If one spends time in the bush amongst wild animals, sooner or later something will happen. An unfortunate event.

bwanamich,
i honestly cannot understand what you disagree with !
we had that topic earlier.........
i simply doubt that anybody in the world can estimate or judge wildlife's behaviour for certain!!
what puzzles me in this case is that the guide offered to get a closer look by [size=14px]leaving the car[/size] as especially wildlife in most areas is more familiar with cars than with pedastrians. and a look through the bino would have made clear the bull is in musth.
and we all know a single old buffalo or an elephant bull in musth are the most unpredictable creatures in the bush.
we go to zambia in may for a 3 week covering of south luangwa and lower zambesi. no one - and i mean no one! - is going to convince me to leave the landi for a foot safari! i simply don't need that kind of adrenalin driven action!
okay shit happens all over the world and bad luck can strike you anywhere. but i simply don't want to become the reason for enhancement of security measures.

Pippa:

I agree with you completely. I guess from the rest of the comments by the guys on the forum that our feeling must be strictly a female thing. If I got injured/killed on a bushwalk, I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing an innocent animal had to be shot because of my selfishness, wanting to be able to brag about my walk.

I think perhaps it is different with people like Bwanamich, Carsten and Nico who have grown up with wildlife and know what they are doing. However, I think it is wrong to take tourists, many of whom don't know the head from the A_S of some of these animals, on a bushwalk just to make a few extra bucks. Many of them I've spoken to are naive enough to think a one-strand wire electrified fence will keep them safe from an elephant ten feet away!

I was charged by a wild elephant and her two babies - not on a bushwalk but while standing at the stockades waiting for the orphans to return. When everyone started yelling "run", I started running but didn't know what I was running from, which way to run or anything because the elephants were behind me (and as you know, they can run silently). Luckily someone grabbed me and pulled me under an electric fence. I was told after the fact that she was only several feet behind my back when she stopped running. I was lucky . It was my fault for being in the space she wanted to be - not her fault that I was there.

Perhaps if more women owned and managed these tourists areas this kind of stuff wouldn't happen. On the whole I think women are more thoughtful and caring and might decide to err on the side of safety rather than the almighty buck.

The Hide's incident was terribly tragic and I feel very deeply for the family. The husband/father is truly a special person for continuing to want to help the people in that area.

I\'m sorry Jan but I disagree totally about your female / male comment!
The two unfortunates were female!
There will always be the tourist, m or f, that find winding up animals exciting & there will always be guides that wind the animals up for their client.
We carry affidavits on our person & in our packs that if we get it wrong then we want no action against the animal. Our children are well aware of this request as well.
Kath & I both love sleeping in the bush, by the way guess what Kath is female!
We love the solitude & being part of the bush, listening to the nights happenings! Not for us the sterile safari, each night back to waiters & clean sheets.
Quote :- Until you\'ve slept in the bush you\'ve only been on a holiday to Africa to see the animals not a safari. Unquote.
It\'s not a male thing, & to take this male female thing further to the other extreme...If females ran the parks I expect All elephants to be called "Nellie" & wear tutu\'s??? Of course not, But it\'s not only females that care!
I do agree that a lot of tourist know not which is front or back! More worrying is they don\'t even care!

I do agree that quote:- "If I got killed on a bush walk I wouldn\'t be able to live with myself"