I made a point of engaging them. In his 15 months in the remote forests of Congo and Gabon, Fay had about 100 close encounters with elephants, most of which he initiated to find out more about the beasts. Their reactions indicated a lot about what was happening to each population, he said. When elephants tense up and run on contact, they are being hunted.
Every encounter is a bit different.
Once he made his presence known to such a group, a matriarch would immediately come right for him. You should never let elephants outflank you. Their strategy often is for a few members of the group to stare you down while a couple of others move quietly around to your side. You have to change position accordingly or they will all charge, and that will be the end of it. Elephant trunks are so powerful, they can kill a person with one swipe, Fay said.