Tourists Have Terrifying ‘Stand Off’ With Elephant on African Safari

A video of a “dangerous” safari scene, where an elephant was shown blocking a vehicle of tourists from passing, has gone viral on TikTok.
The hair-raising moment was captured by TikTok user @tanyanikki93 and has amassed over 119,000 views since it was posted on July 30.
A note overlaid on the clip read: “You have a stand off with a whole elephant.”
The footage was captured during a safari trip in the Victoria Falls area of Zimbabwe, according to hashtags shared with the post.
The clip shows a vehicle driving down a dirt road, while an elephant is shown standing in the distance. A voice off-camera says “Please let us through” as the vehicle stops on the road and the elephant stares straight ahead at the car, moving a few steps towards it.
“Is he gonna move?” a voice asks, while another says: “I don’t know.”
The driver then turns the car engine back on and drives ahead, forcing the elephant to step back and move away to the side of the road. The elephant is shown walking past bushes in the field as the vehicle speeds away.
A caption shared with the post read: “Scary moment, the way my heart was beating! This could have gone so left.”
According to the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust, “with more and more pressure of human settlements, and human activities in traditional safari areas and wildlife corridors, elephant are expanding into neighboring towns” and “this has led to situations in which elephant are losing their fear of people, and coming into close contact with humans.”
Zimbabwe is home to around 84,000 elephants, far exceeding the 55,000 that the country has the capacity to sustainably support.
Last month, Zimbabwe’s Environment Minister Sithembiso Nyoni announced that the country is preparing to cull 200 elephants in response to a severe drought and rising ecological pressures. The event would mark the country’s first elephant cull since 1988.
The decision has faced backlash from animal rights groups. Farai Maguwu, the executive director of Zimbabwe’s Centre for Natural Resource Governance, expressed his opposition on social media, noting that the culls could facilitate illegal ivory trading and undermine elephant conservation efforts.
“Culling must be stopped,” he wrote. “Elephants have a right to exist.”
TikTok users were terrified by the elephant encounter in the viral clip, such as cynthiaolsen345 who simply said “Scary” and Johannes M Kasera wrote “dangerous.”
T.N said “Wow..tour guide tempting fate.”
Dennis Martey895 noted “Thought the elephant was gonna charge at the car.”
User muga said “me expecting a reverse..”
User https_Kroko_15🇳🇦🇬🇧 added “Not me thinking of getting out of the car and run for my life.”
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment via TikTok. This video has not been independently verified.
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