Banner Image: Amboseli icons Tim and Kilimanjaro, Amboseli National Park 2016, Kenya – image courtesy ElephantVoices
A letter titled “Stop elephant hunting in Tanzania borderlands” appeared in Science journal 19 July 2024 – the letter was jointly authored by twenty four eminent scientists and advocates, with the letter first published on-line 27 June 2024.
The Amboseli elephant herds migrate between Kenya (where elephant hunting was made illegal in 1973, with a complete ban on all hunting (without permits) from 1977) and Tanzania (trophy hunting sanctioned). In the past, there was a so-called “gentleman’s agreement” that held until early last year, whereby hunters in Tanzania left Amboseli elephants alone when they crossed over into Tanzania (Mongabay).
Trophy hunters enjoy executing animals (otherwise they would not do it) – they like to call these executions “harvesting.” Trophy hunters also seek to dress their executions as contributing to conservation with the monies they pay to gain access to permit(s) to execute their chosen target(s) – which is normally the biggest and best examples for the trophy hunter to then display as their trophy.
In 2023-24 trophy hunters killed five elephant in north Tanzania – the trophy hunters targeted the largest, oldest bull elephants (Science), presumably because these elephants had large tusks for the trophy hunter to put on display.
Thus, these trophy hunters have depleted the gene pool of ‘big tusker’ elephants – future elephant generations are thus potentially deprived of the genes within the Amboseli herd that could generate the next ‘big tuskers.’ Therefore, the authors of the Science letter have suggested that “Moving forward, Tanzania should stop issuing hunting permits that lead to the killing of these [Amboseli] cross-border elephants.”
Of course, there are those that defend the issuing of such hunting permits to deplete the gene pool of big tuskers – ref Dickman et al.:
“Trophy hunter killings spark fierce battle over the future of super tusker elephants,” The Guardian, 8 July 2024
“Trophy hunting: can killing and conservation go hand in hand? – podcast,” The Guardian, 25 July 2024
None of the defence of trophy hunting’s theoretical species conservation benefits really explains why an elephant is not deemed to have to be sacrificed in the name of trophy hunting dollar income in Kenya, but as soon as that same elephant steps over an arbitrary line on the ground (a human paradigm) into Tanzania, ‘it is essential’ (sic) for that same elephant to be executed by a trophy hunter for dollar income in order for humans to protect (maybe) its fellow herd members (sic) – of course, the hunting outfitter’s business tariffs and hunting permit transaction costs have to be generously covered first no doubt – the residual for ‘conservation’ remains somewhat opaque of course. In reality trophy hunting is often poorly regulated, callous, greedy and detrimental to species conservation.
The fact that big tuskers that are also prized by photographic tourists are being removed to satisfy trophy hunting ‘needs’ should not be underestimated (trophy hunting income is a mere fraction of general tourism income – Economists at Large 2013, Table 4).
Trophy hunting can also increase the likelihood of human/wildlife conflict and lack of acceptance of hunting by local communities, trophy hunting is not guaranteed to reduce the probability of human/wildlife conflict as advocated by trophy hunting apologists:
Unethical hunting practices clearly evident in Ngamiland (Bostwana), where local elephants have been hunted – detrimental to elephant conservation with dominant bull elephants removed, thus opening up local herds to delinquent behaviour and a reduced gene pool. Local Ngamiland communities were not informed of the hunting, do not benefit and are against the hunting in their area, which they say is likely to increase the potential of human wildlife conflict as the local elephant herds are negatively disrupted and angered by humans hunting with guns, thus endangering the local community that have previously co-existed with the elephants – Daily Maverick
The letter in Science ends with the ‘hope’ that no further permits will be issued in Tanzania to allow trophy hunters to execute big tuskers (or any other Amboseli elephants for that matter) for money:
“The Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority is expected to announce the next season’s unsustainable quota or “take” of these rare individuals in July. By declining to provide and permits for the region into which this population migrates, Tanzania can join Kenya in protecting them and giving them the space to move freely.”
We will see……
Further Reading
“Trophy hunting of Amboseli’s super-tuskers in Tanzania sparks outrage, calls for a ban,” Mongabay, 22 July 2024
Amboseli Trust for Elephants – Amboseli Elephant Research Project