The herd of elephants that escaped from the Kruger National Park on Wednesday have reportedly returned to the park.
As reported by The South African website, six elephants escaped South Africa’s most famous park in the Mkhuhlu area outside Hazyview.
Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) spokesperson Simphiwe Shingube said that attempts to push the elephants back into the park late on Wednesday had failed twice, due to disruption by community members and motorists blocking the way.
“We can confirm that the elephants escaped from Kruger National Park. We tried twice with the helicopter to push them back to the park. Unfortunately, we couldn’t succeed at the moment, however, we are monitoring the situation. Our team is on the ground to make sure that the community is safe and we are also trying other options so that the situation can come back to normal. We are saying to the nearby community they must not try to kill these elephants. They must also allow our team to work without any disturbance,” Shingube said at the time.
Not the first time elephants have escaped
On Wednesday night, the Lowvelder reported a sighting of the elephants along the Sabie River.
Meanwhile, a report published by Jacaranda on Thursday morning stated that SANParks spokesperson Ike Phaahla confirmed the elephants’ return to the park on Wednesday evening.
“Late yesterday (Wednesday) we received a report that a farmer had noticed the animals going back into the park, and it’s all six of them,” says Phaahla.
“We will get an update sometime this morning from the colleagues from MTPA (Mpumalanga Tourism & Parks Agency) and also our rangers who were assisting them.”
This is not the first time that a herd of elephants have walked out of South Africa’s most famous park.
As reported by The South African website back in August 2022, a similar incident took place.
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