Western conservationists sharply criticize the hunting of elephants elephants, NOVA reported.
This is not well received in Africa. Botswana's President Masisi calls this “white intervention”. “Who are they to tell us how to manage them and manage hunting when we are so successful in protecting them,” he says. Botswana has more elephants than any other country. It's a conservation success story, but one with often dramatic consequences.
Hunting is a passion for Leon Kachelhofer. He loves adventure, environment and thrill. Hunters must follow certain rules. Technical equipment such as drones is not permitted. Hunting from vehicles is also prohibited.
Kebafilwe Fandani knows well the destruction elephants can cause. The cattleman lives with his family outside Maun. Elephants regularly pass their front door, sometimes whole herds. He constantly has to change his fences when they are in the way of the elephants.
„They clearly think this is a playground. And they can do whatever they want,” says Bakay Mapare, who has planted watermelons in his fields. On harvest day in May, a group of elephants suddenly broke through the fence and started eating the watermelons. Bakai runs back into the house for his rifle.
I fired a warning shot and accidentally hit one of the elephants. But they didn't run away. I fired another one and then one of the elephants charged at me. Bakay has been exceptionally lucky. Elephant attacks are often fatal. The man was seriously injured, but survived.
In 2018, environmentalist Oi Cenava founded the Society for the Protection of Elephants. Since then, he has been promoting peaceful coexistence between humans and elephants. The conflict exists mainly because humans are taking over more and more elephant habitat.
„They spend a lot of their time looking for food and then they have to go back to the watering hole, so they move up and down. This means that if you put your farm here, you will have a problem. Look what's going on. People settle wherever they want, and it makes a mess because it's not easy to control them. It is not easy to control them.
At least where there is water. With just under three million people, Botswana is fairly sparsely populated. But there are 130,000 elephants, more than any other country. As most of Botswana is desert, humans and animals increasingly compete for the country's already scarce resources.
Hunting tourists usually need to plan 10 days if they want to shoot a Botswana elephant. They pay about 50 thousand US dollars for the trip, of which 20% goes to the state. Most trophy hunters come from the US and Europe.
A campaign by animal rights activists. Western NGOs are calling for the abolition of trophy hunting. In Africa, they are demanding a general ban on the import of hunting trophies.
This so-called sport treats wild animals as resources to be exploited and killed for commercial purposes. Elephants are not trophies. Debbie Pick rejects such rhetoric. The taxidermist runs a company in Maun with almost 40 employees. They see to it that the complete carcasses of game or, chosen by hunters, parts of a hunted animal, are preserved and prepared for export.
The trophy hunting business is still going well, especially in the US. But the businesswoman is very concerned that more countries may ban hunting trophy noses. Belgium, Finland and the Netherlands have already tightened their laws.
For local hunters, the focus is on adventure and their own hunting skills. Up to 400 elephants can be shot in Botswana each year. This corresponds to about 0.3% of the entire population.
Hunters, villagers, scientists and even local conservationists agree on one thing - those who live with elephants should be able to decide for themselves whether and how they should be managed, no matter what the West says.