A hunter kills a very big elephant estimated to be 30 years and above in Zimbabwe. The German hunter paid 40000 pounds to get the permit to kill the elephant according to the Telegraph. This comes 3 months after the death of Cecil the Lion.
From the photos posted online the tusks of the elephants seem to weigh 120lb each, therefore the elephant is estimated to be between 40 and 60 years old.
The elephant was shot on October 8 in a private hunting concession bordering Zimbabwe’s southern Gonarezhou National Park by a hunter who paid 60,000 dollars for a permit to land a large bull elephant and was accompanied by a local, experienced professional hunter celebrated by the hunting community for finding his clients large elephants.
Anthony Kaschula, who operates a photographic safari firm in Gonarezhou, posted pictures of the hunt on Facebook, said the elephant had never been seen in the area before but would have been celebrated by visitors and locals alike.
“We have no control over poaching but we do have control over hunting policy that should acknowledge that animals such as this one are of far more value alive (to both hunters and non-hunters) than dead,” he wrote.
“Individual elephants such as these should be accorded their true value as a National Heritage and should be off limits to hunting. In this case, we have collectively failed to ensure that legislation is not in place to help safeguard such magnificent animals.”
The man who helped arrange the hunt, who did not want to be named, defended his client. “This was a legal hunt and the client did nothing wrong,” he said. “We hunters have thick skins and we know what the greenies will say. This elephant was probably 60 years old and had spread its seed many many times over.”
