elephants Archives | Restoring Liberty

Anthrax and poisoning have been ruled out as the cause of a rising number of unexplained elephant deaths in Botswana, the country with the world’s biggest population of the animals.

Wildlife authorities have now discovered 110 carcasses in north west Botswana, up from the 56 announced earlier in May according to a government statement.

“I would say 90% of the new cases we have found are old carcasses we previously did not locate,” said Dimakatso Ntshebe, a regional wildlife director, in an interview. “However, a few are indeed new deaths. All recovered carcasses do not show signs of poaching.” (Read more from “Mass Elephant Deaths: Anthrax, Poison Ruled out” HERE)

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US authorities will remove restrictions on importing African elephant trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia.

That means Americans will soon be able to hunt the endangered big game, an activity that garnered worldwide attention when a Minnesota dentist took Cecil, perhaps the world’s most famous lion, near a wildlife park in Zimbabwe.

A US Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman said the move will allow the two African countries to include US sport hunting as part of their management plans for the elephants and allow them to put “much-needed revenue back into conservation.”

Critics, however, note the restrictions were created by the Obama administration in 2014 because the African elephant population had dropped. The animals are listed in the US Endangered Species Act, which requires the US government to protect endangered species in other countries. (Read more from “US Lifts Ban on Imports of Hunted Elephants” HERE)

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