* Elephants far from endangered in Botswana
* Botswana has one elephants for every 14 people
* Elephant hunt can cost $70,000, similar to Everest climb
By Ed Stoddard
JOHANNESBURG, April 19 (Reuters) – If Spain’s king had shot
an elephant in Botswana during his ill-fated hunting excursion
it would have been one of perhaps 150,000 that roam the vast
southern African country, so the monarch was hardly contributing
to the species’ extinction.
But his jaunt has thrown an unflattering spotlight on
Africa’s elephant hunting industry, which some argue is needed
to keep swelling populations contained but critics see as an
obscene pastime of the idle rich.
King Juan Carlos hobbled out of a Madrid hospital on
Wednesday and apologised for making the elephant-hunting trip –
one that caused outrage in a country suffering an economic
crisis. The 74-year-old broke his hip and was flown back to
Spain for emergency replacement surgery.
He is not reported to have bagged an elephant on this trip
but Spanish media circulated a photograph of him in front of a
dead elephant that apparently had been posted on a safari
website and had been taken in 2006. The photo was later removed
from the website.
Similar outrage greeted photos that went viral online of
U.S. property magnate Donald Trump’s sons with animals,
including a Cape buffalo and a leopard, that they shot in
Zimbabwe.
Many of the animals legally hunted in Africa as trophies are
not highly endangered, or at least not in countries such as
Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, where such activities are
permitted.
Take Botswana, the world’s top diamond producer which is
also rich in elephants.
According to a 2007 estimate by the African Elephant
Specialist Group for the International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) – regarded by scientists as the most authoritative
– Botswana was home to at least 133,000 elephants but around
150,000 was given as the “probable” figure.
With a human population of 2 million, Botswana has the
highest elephant-to-people ratio in Africa, at one for every 14
people.
Conservationists and hunters say their growing numbers are
contributing to fewer forests and growing deserts.
“They have to cull them. That is the purpose of allowing
people to hunt elephants,” said Mike Cameron, a veteran South
African professional hunting guide who has led many safaris to
Botswana.
In areas around the Chobe National Park in northern Botswana
“you can see the total decimation of the forest,” he added.
But trophy hunting is putting little dent in Botswana’s
elephant population. According to the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the treaty
that regulates global wildlife trade, Botswana’s export quota of
trophy tusks has been 800 in recent years, or 400 dead
elephants.
Hunting sources say the price of a two-week elephant hunt –
including your kill and licence – costs $60,000 to $70,000 and
usually excludes things such as charter flights to remote
airstrips, so the final price tag can be much higher.
This is comparable to the cost of a guided climb to the
summit of Everest, which can range from $35,000 to $100,000.
Both bring money and employment to developing countries.
Animal welfare activists and other conservationists take
issue with elephant hunting on grounds of cruelty, as the
animals are highly intelligent with sophisticated social systems
that scientists are still piecing together.
“Behavioural studies in Africa have shown that elephants are
seriously impacted by activities such as hunting, culling and
poaching, not only at the level of the individual animal, but at
the societal level too,” said Jason Bell, the elephant programme
director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
(Editing by Giles Elgood)
