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FILE – Elephants graze in Gabon\u2019s Loango National Park. Ernie Dosio, a big game hunter, reportedly died last week after he was crushed by elephants while hunting in Gabon. (Photo by Steeve Jordan \/ AFP via Getty Images) <\/p>\n
A California<\/a> vineyard owner has died after being crushed by elephants while on a hunting expedition in Africa.<\/p>\n Ernie Dosio, 75, was hunting<\/a> yellow-backed duikers in Gabon when the deadly April 17 incident occurred.<\/p>\n Dosio, who kept an extensive collection of animal heads in his home, was trampled to death when he and his guide stumbled into five female elephants with a calf in the Lope-Okanda rainforest, the Daily Mail reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Collect Africa<\/a>, the Nigerian-based safari operator, confirmed Dosio\u2019s death to the publication. The California-Hawaii Elks Association also confirmed Dosio\u2019s death on Facebook.<\/p>\n ROGAN BLAMES LIBERAL POLICIES FOR ALLOWING ‘MONSTERS’ TO RUN AMOK, EAT HOUSE PETS<\/a><\/p>\n “It is with a most heavy heart and sadness that I am reporting the passing of Ernie Dosio earlier this week,” Tommy Whitman, secretary of Lodi Lodge 1900 and Central District Scouting chairman, wrote in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n “May all of our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones. He will be sorely missed.”<\/p>\n Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Gabon and the safari company.<\/p>\n An unnamed hunter in Cape Town<\/a> who knew Dosio told the news outlet that Dosio had been “hunting since he could hold a rifle and had many trophies from Africa and the U.S.”<\/p>\n “Although many disagree with big game hunting, all of Ernie\u2019s hunts were strictly licensed and above board and were registered as conservation culls to manage animal numbers,” he said<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Ernie had booked a hunt for dwarf forest buffalo and duikers \u2014 in particular, the yellow-backed duiker \u2014 and, under strict licensing laws, he could not take along his own guns.”<\/p>\n The hunting company would supply a shotgun and cartridges for the duiker hunt, he said.<\/p>\n The hunter added he believes Dosio and his guide surprised the elephants, who attacked<\/a> because they felt threatened.<\/p>\n “I would rather not go into detail, but it is safe to assume it would have been quick,” he said. “Ernie was a very well-known and popular hunter in the U.S. and in Africa and a very keen conservationist; he did a hell of a lot of charity work and was a really good guy. What happened has been deeply felt by many on both sides of the Atlantic.”<\/p>\n Dosio’s body is being repatriated to America<\/a> with assistance from the U.S. Embassy.<\/p>\n Dosio owned Pacific AgriLands Inc., a Modesto, California, vineyard land management company with its own 12,000-acre vineyard, according to Lodi News<\/a>.<\/p>\n Central Africa is home to roughly 95,000 endangered forest elephants, with the largest numbers being found in Gabon, according to the World Wildlife Fund.<\/p>\n Read more from FOX News Digital<\/a><\/p>\n World<\/a>California<\/a>Wild Nature<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article FILE – Elephants graze in Gabon\u2019s Loango National Park. Ernie Dosio, a big game hunter, reportedly died…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1184,7,9,8,100,645,1181,16359,8074],"class_list":{"0":"post-285819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-california-headlines","11":"tag-california-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-wild-nature","16":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}