Botswana trophy hunting season opens after Covid hiatus AFP 2 hrs ago © ROBERTO SCHMIDT Trophy hunters have been issued licences to kill nearly 300 elephants
Botswana resumed its controversial trophy-hunting season on Tuesday, a government official said, after the exercise was halted last year by the coronavirus pandemic.
Licences have been issued to kill 287 elephants, the biggest category of animals, according to the authorities.
The landlocked southern African country boasts the world s largest elephant population, estimated at around 130,000.
In 2014, it initiated a blanket ban on hunting to reverse a decline in the population of elephants and other species, but lifted the restriction five years later.
Botswana trophy hunting season opens after Covid hiatus
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Botswana trophy hunting season opens after Covid hiatus
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April 1, 2021 Share
Authorities in Botswana say the elephant hunting season will go ahead as planned, despite a world conservation body listing African elephants as endangered. Botswana’s government argues its elephant population – the world’s largest – is growing too fast and leading to human-wildlife conflict.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) this month listed Africa’s Savannah elephants as endangered and its forest elephants as critically endangered.
But Botswana’s Director of Wildlife and National Paks, Kabelo Senyatso said the authorized elephant hunts will begin on April 6 as planned.
Senyatso said his government uses IUCN’s red list as one of the tools to implement conservation programs.