“The Trump administration is trying to keep these important decisions on importing trophies behind closed doors, and that`s totally unacceptable,” Tanya Sanerib, international legal director of the Center for Biodiversity, told The Associated Press. About 27,000 elephants live outside the country`s wildlife management areas and are regularly in conflict with rural farmers. explains Erik Verreynne, a veterinarian and consultant based in Gaborone, Botswana, in an interview with Greef`s New York Times and Specia. Elephants are not considered wild animals in most African countries with significant populations of these animals. But trophy hunters for large male elephants can search for their prey in South Africa, Namibia, Cameroon, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Gabon and Mozambique. Kenya banned the sport in 1973, while Tanzania continued to allow legal hunting. This caused problems for elephants in Kenya`s Amboseli National Park, says Poole, who studied the park`s large males at the time. The park borders Tanzania, and after the Tanzanian government opened a hunting block on the other side, wandering male Amboseli elephants became popular targets. But the evidence that “elephant hunting saves them” is slim.

The hunting safari business employs few people, and the money from the fees that flee to the villagers is insignificant. A 2009 IUCN report found that sport hunting in West Africa did not bring significant benefits to surrounding communities. A recent report by an Australian economic analysis firm for Humane Society International found that trophy hunting accounts for less than 2% of tourism revenues in eight African countries that allow it.* Researchers have rarely seen similar moments in male elephants, which live as adults on the female herds they grew up in and return only to mate. This behavior has led to a “myth that men are much less social than women,” said George Wittemyer, a conservation biologist at Colorado State University at Fort Collins who has studied elephants in Kenya for more than 20 years. His new research contradicts this notion. “In fact, males are always in groups and have preferences for certain mates. They are not the loners they have been portrayed,” he said. Dan Ashe, head of the Fish and Wildlife Service under the Obama administration and now president and CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquaria, says he personally doesn`t like the idea of hunting elephants for sport, but it`s important to recognize Botswana`s authority to regulate its own wildlife. Today, there are more than 70,000 elephants in Zimbabwe – nearly twice as many elephants as the environment can support through human intervention in suitable habitats. If we want elephants to be there for future generations, elephant hunting is an important conservation tool that must be taken into account. The minimum is the .375 Magnum, which is required by law in many countries. Most hunters prefer something heavier starting from .416 or .458 Magnum, with heavier dual rifles being the best choice.

This was a worrying indication of the quality of funding and the capacity of poachers. They clearly expected to kill many elephants. Big game hunters and the current leadership of the Interior Ministry believe that money from elephant hunting licenses would help preserve it by bringing more revenue to the system. The agency`s memo cites a long-standing lawsuit against the ban brought by Safari Club International and the lobbying arm of the National Rifle Association. As Bax writes, the new decision is in line with Masisi`s decision to suspend his predecessor`s poaching policy and Masisi`s withdrawal of military weapons from Botswana`s anti-poaching units. Africa`s elephant population has fallen from about 5 million a century ago to about 400,000, a decline triggered in part by poaching and demand for elephant ivory and habitat loss, the AP reported. Paradoxically, however, if hunting profits are high enough, it is possible that some of the money will go to conservation efforts. “By sacrificing 700 elephants a year,” says Verreynne, “we`ll probably save more.” African elephants have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1979. Potgieter says many local farmers lost their annual harvest in a matter of nights. The presence of elephants has “effectively imposed a curfew on all human movement after dark,” she adds, so visiting a friend`s house at the end of the day can be life-threatening.

The idea that killing more elephants will help save the species is counterintuitive, and their reasoning is hard for many conservation organizations to support: let wealthy hunters pay large sums to cull elephants and use the money to support conservation efforts and local communities. Villagers would not have to poach elephants to feed their families and pay their children`s school fees. Nevertheless, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a respected organization that establishes the conservation status of all species, supports the idea. According to the World Wildlife Foundation, agriculture and land development have pushed African elephants into a smaller and smaller area in recent decades. Between 1979 and 2007 alone, the species` range dropped from three million square miles to just one million. The drivers of competition and conflict for land and resources, not only between elephants but also with humans, and the gravity of the situation are obvious. Many conservationists oppose elephant hunting, both because of the dwindling number of elephants across the continent and because of ethical concerns – there is no doubt that elephants are capable of empathy and emotion. Many supporters of the ban also cite ethical concerns. Finally, National Geographic`s Bale writes, “There is no doubt that elephants are capable of empathy and emotion.” Wise believes that the emotional and psychological suffering that elephants suffer from this sport is obvious. “One day he will be seen for the moral outrage that he is,” he said. It remains to be seen whether this decision will bring additional revenue and limit human-elephant conflict in the country – or whether it will lead to a decline in international tourism and pave the way for the legalisation of the ivory trade. For what it`s worth, Burke notes for the Guardian, some experts say widespread hunting will actually exacerbate conflicts with local residents, as hunting makes elephants “fearful and aggressive.” Despite the demand, there are those who work hard to thwart supply.