Lodi millionaire and veteran trophy hunter, 75, was stalking antelope in the Lopé rainforest when a herd of five elephant cows and a calf charged

Ernie Dosio, a 75-year-old California vineyard owner and one of the best-known big-game hunters in the American West, was trampled to death by a herd of forest elephants on April 17 while tracking antelope in the rainforest of central Gabon, the safari company that organized the trip and a local fraternal lodge have confirmed.

Dosio — a father of two who lived on the outskirts of Lodi, about 30 miles south of Sacramento — was in the Lopé-Okanda region of Gabon on a roughly £30,000 (approximately $38,000) expedition booked through the outfitter Collect Africa. The stated quarry was dwarf forest buffalo and the yellow-backed duiker, a reclusive forest antelope that, according to the Los Angeles Zoo, whistles a sharp alarm call and bolts into heavy cover when startled.

He was armed with a shotgun supplied by the outfitter. Under Gabonese licensing rules, Dosio was not permitted to bring his own rifles for the duiker hunt.

What happened in the forest

According to a retired South African hunter who knew Dosio and spoke to the Daily Mail, and a statement from Collect Africa, Dosio and his professional guide pushed through dense undergrowth and came up abruptly on five female elephants traveling with a calf. The herd charged.

The professional hunter was struck first. He was seriously injured and lost his rifle in the brush. That left Dosio with only the shotgun, which is not a practical weapon against a charging African forest elephant — a species in which adult females stand roughly 12 feet at the shoulder and can weigh close to four tons.

Dosio was trampled. A retired hunter quoted by the Daily Mail said only that the end would have been quick.

Collect Africa confirmed a client had been killed on April 17 and that the accompanying professional hunter was injured. The U.S. Embassy in Gabon is handling the repatriation of Dosio’s remains to California, according to reporting by the Mail and statements relayed through Lodi Lodge.

Globally, elephants are estimated to kill between 300 and 500 people a year.

Who Ernie Dosio was

Dosio built his fortune in California wine. He owned Pacific AgriLands Inc., a Modesto-based operation that runs a 12,000-acre vineyard and, more significantly, provides vineyard-management services to much of the San Joaquin Valley wine industry — including grapes that flow into E. & J. Gallo wines. One report cited by the company’s allies credits Pacific AgriLands’ client network with producing a substantial share of California’s annual wine output.

His elder son, Jeff Dosio, serves as president of the firm. A second son, Blake, is also reported to have worked in the family business. Dosio is survived by his long-term partner, Betty, and the two sons.

Around Lodi, Dosio was known less for the winery than for the lodge and the trophies. He held a 30-year tenure as “Great Elk” of the Lodi chapter of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks — a role that, in that organization, signals both seniority and a heavy load of charitable work. Friends said he quietly backed scholarships, veterans’ causes and disaster-relief drives, and hosted a monthly charity dinner that drew judges, wine-industry executives and community figures.

He held a lifetime membership in California Waterfowl (referred to by some local sources as “California Wildfowl”) and was a fixture at the Sacramento Safari Club.

A hunting life

Dosio had hunted since boyhood, according to people who knew him. Over several decades he had legally shot elephant, rhinoceros, leopard, Cape buffalo and lion across multiple African countries, and nearly every North American deer species — elk, moose and reindeer among them. Photographs supplied by the outfitter Bobby Hansen Safaris show him with a kudu taken in Tanzania.

His trophy rooms at home in Lodi — described by visitors as extensive — included mounts of elephant, rhino, bear, buffalo, crocodile, lion, zebra and leopard. Supporters argued that his hunts were licensed, regulated and tied to conservation-quota culling; critics of trophy hunting will, predictably, read the same résumé very differently.

A friend quoted in British press coverage described him as a mustachioed, plainspoken man who, despite his wealth, preferred country life to jet-setting. A Lodi Lodge official, Tommy Whitman, posted a tribute on Facebook calling Dosio a pillar of the community whose passing had been felt deeply on both sides of the Atlantic.

Context: the yellow-backed duiker hunt

The Lopé-Okanda complex — a UNESCO World Heritage site covering rainforest and savanna in central Gabon — is one of the few places where licensed hunters can still pursue dwarf forest buffalo and yellow-backed duiker under government quota. Forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis), which share the same dense-canopy habitat, are a separate, classified-as-critically-endangered species and are not among the legal quarry.

Encounters between hunting parties and elephant herds in thick rainforest are, by the standards of African safari hunting, a known hazard. Visibility in the undergrowth is often under ten meters. A startled cow with a calf at her side is one of the most reliably dangerous animals in Africa.

Reaction and what happens next

News of the death reached Lodi on Thursday, April 23, when Whitman’s Facebook post began to circulate. By Friday morning, British tabloids had picked up the story; U.S. outlets began aggregating it through the afternoon.

A family friend, quoted in multiple British reports, said the news hit the community like a bomb going off, and predicted a large memorial.

No cause-of-death report from Gabonese authorities has been publicly released. The U.S. Embassy in Libreville has not issued a statement beyond confirming it is involved in the repatriation. Collect Africa has not named the injured professional hunter or commented on the hunter’s condition beyond confirming serious injury.

Funeral arrangements in Lodi have not been announced.

Reporting compiled from the Daily Mail (via syndicated coverage on LADbible, Tyla, GB News, AOL, Yahoo News and Britbrief), a Facebook statement from Lodi Lodge secretary Tommy Whitman, and public statements attributed to safari operator Collect Africa. Details on yellow-backed duiker behavior drawn from the Los Angeles Zoo.