A 75-year-old American millionaire and big-game hunter, Ernie Dosio, died after being crushed by a group of elephants during a hunting trip in Gabon last Friday. Dosio, a vineyard owner from Lodi, California, was pursuing yellow-backed duiker, a species of antelope, in the Lope-Okanda rainforest when he and his guide encountered five female elephants and a calf. Safari operator Collect Africa confirmed Dosio's death and reported that the professional guide accompanying him suffered serious injuries in the incident. Dosio owned Pacific AgriLands Inc, which manages 12,000 acres of vineyard land in Modesto and provides financing services to wine producers. He was a longtime member of the Sacramento Safari Club and had accumulated numerous hunting trophies from Africa and the United States over decades of expeditions. A retired hunter familiar with Dosio told the Daily Mail that all of his hunts were legally permitted and registered as part of conservation efforts through culling. The individual, based in Cape Town, said the elephants appeared to have been startled by the presence of Dosio and his guide. Gabon is home to around 95,000 forest elephants, the majority of the global population of this critically endangered species. The U.S. embassy in Gabon is assisting in repatriating Dosio's remains to California. Legal trophy hunting remains a controversial industry, drawing wealthy clients from countries like the United States. Donald Trump Jr. was photographed holding a severed elephant's tail during a hunt in Africa more than ten years ago. During his presidency, Donald Trump established a wildlife advisory board composed largely of hunters, which faced legal challenges and was dissolved in 2020. Another American hunter was killed by a buffalo in South Africa last year while on a similar expedition.
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