Republican senator's convoy chased away by group of elephants

Arizona Senator Jeff Flake got more than he bargained for during a recent trip to learn about wildlife in Africa.

The Republican senator shared video on Thursday showing a group of elephants chasing his convoy in Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park.

The video shows the elephants, with their ears spread wide, chasing the rapidly retreating group out of the park. Flake posted the video on Twitter, and joked that the elephants — the symbol of the GOP — "have no respect for a fellow Republican."

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The senator was a part of a larger group of U.S. politicians who were visiting Africa on a "four-country fact-finding mission in the region to better understand wildlife conservation," the U.S. embassy in Zimbabwe said.

Sen. Flake, joined by Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS), Senator Christopher Coons (D-DE), Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD  and Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), visited Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia.

Flake's presence on the trip was particularly noteworthy — he is on the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee and serves as chairman of Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy.

He introduced a bipartisan bill in December meant to combat wildlife trafficking and, a week later, wrote a CNN op-ed warning of the global crisis posed by poachers.

"We cannot afford to stand by. We can and must work together and use every tool at our disposal to curb wildlife poaching and trafficking," wrote Flake.

The elephants in Mozambique didn't have time to ponder whether Flake was an ally.

Poachers there managed to kill half of the country's elephants in the last five years alone, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, decreasing the population from just over 20,000 in 2010 to barely 10,000 in 2015.

They've got every right to be angry.

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