Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Aggro Gerald a ticking bomb
Victim butting heads with park over giraffe
A NEW YORK University student nearly died last year after being attacked by Gerald the movie star giraffe who killed award- winning cameraman Carlos Carvalho with a headbutt at Glen Afric Country Lodge in Broederstroom two weeks ago.
Struck while filming, the 47-year-old father of two flew 4m through the air and landed in a crumpled heap. A few hours later he was declared dead at Johannesburg’s Milpark Hospital after succumbing to extensive facial and skull fractures and severe brain injuries.
Had the giraffe’s butt been just millimetres more accurate, it would have killed the student in exactly the same way, said a veteran wildlife expert who has studied the video taken seconds before Gerald struck Minzhi Liu, 27, on her cheek and knocked her out cold.
“It must have been a glancing blow,” said Mark Tennant, who has three decades of experience in Africa’s wilds.
Tennant has personal experience of Glen Afric after working with a problematic film star lion a few years ago, which later attacked one of the restaurant chefs.
“Minzhi was millimetres from death,” said Tennant, who picked up on tell-tale signs in the video that the giraffe was being aggressive and lining up for an attack.
“Had Gerald hit her squarely, a fraction higher up on her temple, he would have smashed her skull and killed her on the spot. There’s no doubt in my mind about that.
“Giraffes are deadly wild animals. Their heads are dangerous weapons. They can kill lions and each other with just one blow.”
Chinese national Liu, a Master’s psychology graduate, ended a month study tour of South Africa with fellow New York University students on August 6 last year with a lunch at Glen Afric, a wildlife farm for tourists that has doubled as a film location for four decades.
As Liu and her friends were leaving the restaurant, they saw Gerald at the fence next to their bus so they paused to photograph him about 2m from the fence before boarding.
Liu’s journal entry afterwards records what happened next.
“We all stood there, looking up at it. Not sure if he was nervous or excited with all the humans, he began to act unusually, reaching his head out of the fence, keeping on walking forward and backward, making the bowing gesture. It seemed like he was a playful boy just trying to interact with us. He walked away from me and this was the last time that I remembered before I fell on the floor.
“I was feeling dizzy… Something banged on my left face tremendously hard, so that I was unconscious… I couldn’t stand up, something flowing inside my mouth, I spat it, it was my blood coming from my tooth gums. I heard people screaming but didn’t know the direction of the noise. Then someone picked me up…
“I was carried to the bathroom… dust and blood were mixing on my face. I looked terrible. I was crying… I opened my mouth… it was badly mutilated. I couldn’t believe what happened to me…
“The (Glen Afric) employee used a cloth to stop the bleeding and said she was attacked by the same giraffe. His name is Gerald. I said I will remember his name.”
Glen Afric did not call the paramedics, so Liu had to be driven by bus to Pretoria MediClinic where she was treated and prescribed with strong painkillers to survive her flight back to New York. There, she underwent a brain scan and was treated for concussion, short-term memory loss, bruising to her head and cheek, ripped gums and a broken tooth.
Two days after Gerald’s attack, Lui wrote. “I could not even step on the stair. I could feel the fluid flowing in my brain if I did a slightly higher vigorous movement…”
It took Liu months to fully recover as well as regain her memory.
When she emailed Glen Afric on August 17, asking for assistance with her $2 657 (R33 253) medical bills it took a month for the farm’s Park Avenue attorney, Richard Blank, to respond. He blamed Liu entirely for the attack and refused any compensation.
“Blaming Minzhi for the attack because she was in contravention of signage, which I don’t see in the footage or the stills, and hiding behind indemnities misses the point,” said Tennant.
“The bottom line is that any expert can see that Gerald is aggressive and has lost his fear of humans. He now sees them as predators, which is a time bomb.
“In addition, Glen Afric have not taken the right measures to protect their visitors. Their fence is a joke. It has to be high enough to prevent Gerald or any other giraffe from leaning over and taking pot shots at tourists. Otherwise he will kill again.
“It’s disingenuous to blame tourists who cannot be expected to know the dangers of African wildlife. That’s our job as experts who make money from tourism.
“In addition, Glen Afric experts should be aware of Gerald’s behaviour. In the video, he moves back to line himself up to attack. He cocks his ears, which is sure sign that he’s seeing the people in front of him as a threat, and he’s striking to negate it.”
Liu’s is the second recorded attack by Gerald on a tourist at Glen Afric and a recent social media post points to more.
British expat owner John Brooker acknowledged a similar 2016 attack but refused to provide details.
He also stopped answering questions about the number of people Gerald had attacked and whether he had hospitalised several tourists earlier this year.