Heather Uber killed while visiting Peace Corps daughter in Cameroon
Pittsburgh woman killed by elephant on trip to Cameroon
The Associated Press
12/9/2003, 8:53 a.m. ET
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A charging elephant killed a Pittsburgh woman while she was visiting a wildlife park in Cameroon with her husband and daughter.
Heather Uber, 55, suffered internal injuries Thursday when she and another member of a tourist group were knocked down by an elephant that suddenly ran toward them, Uber's husband, Ned, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for its Tuesday editions.
"Everything happened so fast," Ned Uber said. "Heather ended up getting bumped by the elephant's tusk in the lower left abdomen. We all tried to run around a tree, but they're really fast compared to people."
It took nearly an hour to get Heather Uber out of the wildlife park and another two hours to get her to the nearest hospital in the city of Garoua. She died shortly after she arrived at the hospital, Ned Uber said.
The Ubers were in Cameroon visiting their 23-year-old daughter, Holly, who had been in the country with the Peace Corps since September 2002.
Ned Uber, who brought his wife's body back to Pittsburgh on Saturday, said the couple took precautions during their trip, first when they traveled to the village of Ngan-Ha, where their daughter was living, and then when they visited the wildlife park.
Ned Uber said he did not know whether the elephant that charged the group was a female protecting her young.
Bill Langbauer, Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium's director of science and conservation, has researched elephants in Africa over the last 20 years. He said it's dangerous to be too close to the animals.
"When they do act spontaneously like that, there are usually calves involved, or a male who is in 'must' — when his testosterone (levels) are up — and he goes into a rage," Langbauer said.
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