Ernie Dosio, a 75-year-old California vineyard owner and millionaire big-game hunter, died Friday after being crushed by a group of elephants during a hunting expedition in Gabon's Lope-Okanda rainforest.
Dosio was hunting yellow-backed duiker, an antelope species, when he and his professional guide unexpectedly encountered five female elephants with a calf. The elephants killed Dosio and seriously injured his guide, according to safari operator Collect Africa, which confirmed the death of its client.
The Lodi, California native owned Pacific AgriLands Inc, a company managing 12,000 acres of vineyard land in Modesto and providing services to wine producers. He was well-known in Sacramento Safari Club circles and had built an extensive collection of hunting trophies over decades, including elephants and lions.
"Ernie has been hunting since he could hold a rifle and has many trophies from Africa and the US," a retired hunter who knew Dosio told the Daily Mail. "Although many disagree with big-game hunting, all Ernie's hunts were strictly licensed and above board and were registered as conservation in culling animal numbers."
The source described the elephants as being "surprised" by the hunters' presence, leading to the fatal encounter. Gabon's forests shelter approximately 95,000 forest elephants — most of the species' global population — which are considered highly endangered.
Trophy hunting remains a multimillion-dollar industry popular with wealthy Americans. In South Africa alone, the industry was valued at $120 million in 2015, according to the EMS Foundation. Each year, trophy hunters kill tens of thousands of wild animals worldwide through legal hunting tours.
During his first term, Donald Trump created a controversial wildlife advisory board to rewrite federal rules for importing heads and hides of African elephants, lions, and rhinoceroses. The board was disbanded in 2020 following lawsuits. Trump Jr. himself was photographed holding a severed elephant's tail during an African hunting trip more than a decade ago.
US embassy officials in Gabon are now coordinating the return of Dosio's remains to California. The incident highlights the inherent dangers of big-game hunting in Africa, even for experienced hunters pursuing smaller prey.
