A California vineyard owner has passed away after being crushed to death by elephants while on a hunting expedition in Africa. Ernie Dosio, 75, was hunting yellow-backed duikers, a type of antelope, in Gabaon when the incident occurred on April 17, 2026. Dosio was trampled to death when he, along with his guide, stumbled upon five female elephants with a calf in the Lope-Okanda rainforest.
An organization known as Collect Africa, a safari operator located in Nigeria, confirmed the millionaire’s tragic death to the media. The California-Hawaii Elks Association also confirmed Dosio’s passing in a post on Facebook. “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, said in a statement on the matter.
“May all of our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones. He will be sorely missed,” Whitman added. According to a report from Fox News, an unnamed hunter from Cape Town who was familiar with Dosio told the outlet that Dosio had been “hunting since he could hold a rifle and had many trophies from Africa and the U.S.”
“Although many disagree with big game hunting, all of Ernie’s hunts were strictly licensed and above board and were registered as conservation culls to manage animal numbers,” the hunter said. “Ernie had booked a hunt for dwarf forest buffalo and duikers — in particular, the yellow-backed duiker — and, under strict licensing laws, he could not take along his own guns.” Duiker are very elusive animals, often proving difficult to hunt due to their ability to quickly disappear into thickets.
The hunter then revealed that the hunting company would supply a shotgun and cartridges for the duiker hunt. He then stated his belief that Dosio and his guide surprised the elephants, who then attacked the two men out of fear. “I would rather not go into detail, but it is safe to assume it would have been quick,” he continued.
“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,” the hunter added. The report also revealed that Dosio’s body is currently being repatriated to America with assistance from the U.S. Embassy.
Dosio was the owner of Pacific AgriLands Inc., a vineyard land management company located in Modesto, California, that had its own 12,000-acre vineyard. Central Africa, where Dosio was hunting for duiker, is home to 95,000 endangered forest elephants. The largest concentration of these animals can be found in the Gabon region, according to information from the World Wildlife Fund. Duikers, the animal Dosio was hunting, are so elusive that not much information about the species currently exists. The average duiker weighs approximately 150 pounds, which is determined by the amount of food the animal takes in daily.
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