Ernie Dosio, a 75-year-old California vineyard owner and lifelong big-game hunter, was trampled to death by elephants in Gabon's Lope-Okanda rainforest on April 17 after he and a professional hunter stumbled upon five female elephants guarding a calf.

Dosio, a father of two who lived in Lodi, California, had traveled to central Africa on a licensed hunt for yellow-backed duiker, a rare forest antelope, on a stalk valued at roughly $40,000. He was not hunting elephants. He was carrying a shotgun supplied by the safari company, as Gabon's strict licensing laws barred him from bringing his own firearms into the country.

The safari company Collect Africa confirmed in a brief statement that a client had been killed on April 17 during a hunt in central Gabon. The company said the matter was being handled by the U.S. Embassy in Gabon and Dosio's family in California. The embassy told reporters that a media reply could take "several days" to process through state departments, and that Dosio's body was being repatriated to Lodi.

What happened in the rainforest

A retired game hunter based in Cape Town who knew Dosio described the fatal encounter to the Daily Mail. He said Dosio and his professional hunter surprised the elephants in the dense forest. The animals, feeling threatened, attacked immediately. The professional hunter was injured and lost his rifle, leaving Dosio armed only with the shotgun, no match for a charging forest elephant.

"Whilst in the forest Ernie and his PH (professional hunter) surprised five forest elephant cows with a calf. Feeling under threat the elephants immediately attacked them."

The retired hunter declined to elaborate on the specifics of Dosio's death but added plainly:

"I would rather not go into detail, but it is safe to assume it would have been quick."

African elephant females can stand 12 feet tall at the shoulder, weigh nearly four tons, and charge at speeds up to 25 miles per hour. Gabon, roughly 88 percent covered by forest, is home to an estimated 50,000 forest elephants, said to represent about 60 percent of the world's remaining population. The dense terrain of Lope-Okanda would have given Dosio and his guide almost no warning before the encounter.

A licensed hunter, not a poacher

The retired Cape Town hunter went out of his way to stress that Dosio operated within the law. He said Dosio had booked a hunt for dwarf forest buffalo and duikers under strict licensing, and that his hunts were "registered as conservation in culling animal numbers."

"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."

That distinction matters. Legal, regulated hunting in Africa generates conservation revenue that funds anti-poaching operations, habitat management, and local economies. Dosio held a licence allowing him to hunt dwarf forest buffalo in Gabon. He was pursuing a yellow-backed duiker, a forest antelope first documented by an English botanist in 1815, with short eight-inch horns, not elephants. The animals that killed him were not his quarry. They were a threat he could not have anticipated in the thick rainforest canopy.

The man behind the trophy rooms

Back in Lodi, a farming community about 30 miles south of Sacramento, Dosio was a fixture. He owned Pacific AgriLands, which runs a 12,000-acre vineyard in Modesto and provides management for local wine farms, including operations supporting E & J Gallo wines. The region produces 40 percent of California's wine output. Dosio sat on the board of the Lodi Winegrape Commission, was a life member of California Wildfowl, and was a mainstay of the Sacramento Safari Club.

He held the post of Great Elk in the California Central District Elks, an organization described as comprising 1,900 lodges with 750,000 members nationwide, for 30 years. Tommy Whitman, secretary of the Lodi Lodge, announced Dosio's death on Facebook.

"It is with a most heavy heart and sadness that I am reporting the passing of Ernio Dosio. May all of our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones. Ernie was Great Elk for 30 years and a pillar in our community who will be sorely missed."

Whitman added that Dosio "always had his hand in his pocket and would help out those who needed it be it war veterans or handicapped or underprivileged kids." He said Dosio "would never want recognition but he was always there with a loving heart."

A family friend painted a similar picture. Dosio hosted monthly charity functions at the Elks lodge where food was served and money was raised for those in need. The guest lists included judges, local vineyard leaders, and figures from industry and commerce. It was, the friend said, "where all the local networking was done", and "always a huge fundraiser with money raised going to help those who needed it."

A farmer with a big mustache and no pretense

The family friend described Dosio as a man who lived modestly for someone of his means. He lived in a detached four-bedroom home in Lodi with his long-term partner Betty.

"Ernie with his big moustache was larger than life but did not show it off, although he had money he was not one for the big house or fancy cars or the jet-set lifestyle. He was a just a farmer and good old country boy who loved to hunt and fish."

The friend added: "There are not many in the US today who would have a trophy collection to match Ernie's." Whitman confirmed that Dosio "spent much of his time either hunting here in the USA or in Africa and most of his trophies are on display at his own trophy rooms."

A representative of Pacific AgriLands declined to comment on the record, saying any statement would have to come from Dosio's son Jeff, who serves as president of the company, "when he is ready." She added that "Ernie was very popular and Jeff is taking many calls as you can well imagine. It is a huge tragedy." Dosio's other son, Blake, is believed to work in the family business as well.

The risks of lawful hunting in Africa

Dosio's death is not the first time a licensed American hunter has been killed by the very wildlife that draws sportsmen to Africa. In August of last year, Asher Watkins, a 52-year-old millionaire big-game hunter whose Watkins Ranch Group sold ranches priced between £1 million and £30 million, was gored to death by a buffalo in South Africa on a hunt that cost roughly £8,500. The buffalo reportedly charged at 55 miles per hour. Watkins left behind a teenage daughter, Savannah.

Those incidents sit in a different category from the controversies that have drawn public outrage. In July 2015, American dentist Walter Palmer, then 55, paid £50,000 to shoot Cecil, a well-known lion that was lured away from safety and killed with a bow and arrow. More recently, deer farmer Delvy Workman, 48, was identified by Africa Geographic and Lion Expose as the man who shot Blondie, a lion that had been caring for ten cubs and three lionesses, in Zimbabwe on a £35,000 hunt. Workman's social media posts, including the line "Let's kill some lions", drew widespread condemnation.

Dosio's case bears no resemblance to those. He was not hunting elephants. He was not accused of luring protected animals from reserves. He was on a licensed, regulated stalk in a country that permits such hunts as part of its wildlife management framework. He encountered a defensive herd in dense forest, and the animals did what elephants do when they feel their young are in danger.

A community in mourning

The retired Cape Town hunter summed up the loss in blunt terms:

"Ernie was a very well-known and popular hunter in the US and in Africa and a very keen conservationist and he did a h*** of a lot of charity work and was a really good guy. What happened has been deeply felt by many each side of the Atlantic."

The family friend in Lodi said the news hit the community hard. "The news of his death in Africa was like a bomb going off here," the friend said. "It has been said the elephants came out of nowhere. One thing is for sure, he will get a huge send-off."

Ernie Dosio lived the way a lot of Americans used to, working the land, giving back quietly, and spending his free time in the outdoors. He followed the law, held the right permits, and still died doing what he loved. The wilderness doesn't care about your paperwork. It never has.