Ernie Dosio, a 75-year-old millionaire vineyard owner from California, met a tragic end this week while on a £30,000 big-game hunting trip in Gabon. The experienced hunter was trampled to death by a herd of five forest elephants after accidentally surprising them deep in the Lopé-Okanda forest.
From Vines to Trophy Hunts: Who Was Ernie Dosio?
Dosio made his fortune through Pacific AgriLands Inc, managing 12,000 acres of California vineyards near Modesto. However, his passion was big-game hunting. He boasted an impressive trophy room filled with heads of lions, leopards, and rhinos collected over decades. On this trip, he was pursuing the elusive yellow-backed duiker, a rare forest antelope.
Fatal Encounter with Forest Elephants
During the hunt, Dosio and his professional guide accidentally came face-to-face with five forest elephant cows and a calf. The startled elephants charged. The guide was thrown aside, losing his rifle and was left seriously injured. Dosio, armed only with a shotgun provided by the hunting company, was trampled to death.
“Ernie and his guide surprised five forest elephant cows with young. Feeling threatened, the elephants attacked immediately,” said a retired game hunter who knew Dosio. “Despite many opposing big-game hunting, Ernie’s hunts were all strictly licensed and done in the name of conservation and population control.”
'A Hell of a Good Guy' with a Controversial Hobby
Known both in the US and Africa, Dosio was regarded as a keen conservationist and a generous charity supporter. However, hunting elephants in dense forest with only a shotgun proved a fatal miscalculation. As the old internet saying goes, if you try to kill a wild animal and it kills you first, that’s a serious “skill issue.” Unlucky, but lethal risks come with the territory.
Dosio’s body is now being flown back to Lodi, California, via the US Embassy in Gabon.
Originally published by UKNIP.
