Pairs of elephant tusks that are separated during smuggling are illuminating the tracks of wildlife crime.

Identifying matching elephant DNA in different shipments of tusks can help scientific sleuths connect the shipments to the same ivory trafficking cartel, a new study finds. That technique has already revealed the presence of three major interconnected cartels that are active in Africa, researchers report September 19 in Science Advances.

Reports of elephant poaching in Botswana are under the spotlight with various claims in national and international media that the current adverse situation is driven by anti-poaching budget cuts, disarming of anti-poaching units, poachers being spoilt for choice with wildlife finding a safe-haven in the country, and even the trophy hunting ban.

Africa’s elephant population has plummeted from roughly a million in 1970 to around 400,000 today – a decline which is largely blamed on poaching for their ivory tusks. At its peak in 2011, poaching claimed 36,000 elephants a year, or one every 15 minutes.

A third elephant hunted last week in the Enduimet area of Tanzania, within 40km of the Kenya/Tanzania border, has amplified the debate around hunting free-roaming cross-border elephant populations and super tuskers and driven a wedge between segments of the hunting community. With another three hunting licenses granted for elephant hunts in this region in the coming months, the integrity of the Amboseli elephant population is in jeopardy.

Update 14/03/2024: Amboseli Trust for Elephants has positively identified the first trophy-hunted bull as Gilgil, a breeding elephant aged 35, who would have been approaching his prime reproductive years. Male elephants reach their prime breeding years at or about 40 years. Our sources confirm Gilgil was a ‘100-pounder’, with one tusk weighing 99 pounds and the other 110 pounds – though photos recently shared of Gilgil are dated and do not reflect his tusk size at the time he was killed. 

Following these legal hunts, about 10 super tuskers are left in the Amboseli Ecosystem, according to Big Life Foundation. This ecosystem encompasses land on either side of the Tanzania/Kenya border, including Amboseli National Park and surrounding conservancies in Kenya, as well as the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area and beyond in Tanzania.

The Amboseli elephant population includes well-known super tuskers (elephants with one or both tusks weighing over 100-pounds) such as Craig, Esau, Tee-Jay, Michael and One Ton – famous super tuskers that attract thousands of tourists yearly. Hunting is illegal in Kenya, but these elephants are vulnerable to trophy hunting when crossing into Tanzania, where hunting elephants with a license is legal. 

In January, Africa Geographic broke the news that two super tuskers were hunted in the Enduimet area, close to the Kenyan border, in the latter half of 2023, sparking division within the hunting community and outrage outside of it. On 1 March this year, Africa Geographic received unconfirmed reports that a third elephant had been hunted in the Enduimet region. Shortly after this, news of the hunt started circulating on social media. On 11 March, Big Life Foundation released a statement confirming that a third elephant had been hunted. The statement noted that the elephant’s carcass was also burnt (as with the first two hunts), making identifying the specific elephant impossible. The tusk size of the third hunted elephant is unknown.  

Elephant Voices, Big Life Foundation and Amboseli Trust for Elephants have released a Joint Statement on the Amboseli Elephants calling for the protection of this cross-border population and raising concerns about the granting of three further elephant-hunting licenses. These organisations are calling for the reinstatement of a moratorium on hunting in the border region, which has been in place since 1995:

“Our position is that the Amboseli cross-border population should be protected from trophy hunting because it is unique and highly valuable as a scientific base of knowledge of elephants. In addition, it represents one of the last gene pools for large tusks. A successful moratorium held for 30 years.… We appeal to the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments to work together to protect this cross-border population, to recognise its immense scientific value and to ensure that these treasured elephants are not the target of trophy hunters.”

All 2,000 elephants in the Amboseli elephant population are known, as they have been closely studied by the Amboseli Elephant Research Project (AERP) for 51 years. 

“There are 63 elephant families in the Amboseli population, of which 17 families, consisting of 365 members, regularly spend time in Tanzania. In addition, approximately 30 adult male elephants, over the age of 25 years, use the Enduimet area and beyond in Tanzania as part of their home range,” says the Joint Statement. “For half a century, Enduimet has been a favourite area for a particular set of adult males who use it as part of their ‘bull area’, which is an area they use when they are bulking up for their next reproductively active period.”

Other stakeholders are also pushing for Tanzania to reinstate the cross-border agreement with Kenya to protect these elephants, with a petition on Change.org calling for signatures. 

“Male elephants grow throughout their lifetime, as do their tusks.… By selecting older individuals, hunters not only have a damaging effect on elephant lives and society, but are negatively influencing the genetic future of the Amboseli population, not to mention the ecosystem’s tourism potential,” says the Joint Statement. Big Life added in their own statement, that “old bulls are not past their reproductive prime, as hunters contend. Research has shown that elephant bulls only reproduce consistently by age 40, by which time 75% of them will have died. So older bulls are in fact disproportionately important for breeding.”

 Putting elephants on the map – exploring connectivity in southern Africa

Meanwhile, the African Professional Hunters Association has warned its members not to share photos on social media of hunted species that will “inflame public opinion”, and not to “deliberately market” any areas as “bordering non-hunting areas”. “The reality is that there are certain elephant bulls that we simply must avoid a confrontation with.… As to ignore such could come at grave cost to the entire act of elephant hunting,” reads the letter to members. 

Since the killing of the third elephant, Africa Geographic has consulted with sources close to the hunt. While confirming that an elephant was shot in Enduimet, most sources refused to be named or provide documentation for fear of their safety. However, speculation on the identity of the hunting company and hunters involved is rife, with one prominent Texan hunter openly posting details of daily hunting activities in Enduimet on social media during the same period that the third elephant was shot. In the days following the killing of the elephant, he made his Instagram account private and has been inactive since. According to Instagram posts from the hunting party, the individuals were operating on a 21-day hunting license and killed at least 19 other animals during this period, including spotted hyenas, Patterson’s eland, Grant’s gazelle, gerenuk, Kirk’s dik-dik, lesser kudu, as well as wildebeest and zebra for “bait for a cat hunt”.

Various statements from within the trophy hunting industry, including the statement by Tanzanian spokesperson Michel Mantheakis addressed to Africa Geographic, indicate that there is a rising trend amongst a small faction of the industry for concealing these hunts targeting super tuskers rather than moving away from hunting them.

We will provide more information as it arises.  

As the Botswana government rumbles towards the lifting of the ban on hunting its famous wildlife, an authoritative poll in the United States, from which the second greatest number of foreign tourists come, has found overwhelming public disapproval of the plan.

In the arid north of Kenya, Trinnie Cartland is preparing to scale up her organic acacia honey business. She tells me that local communities have been keen to work with her: many young people are looking for alternatives to livestock farming. There’s high demand for honey in Kenya, where prices are similar to those in Europe and beekeepers can make good money.

Research conducted by the Elephants Without Borders conservation group indicates that elephant poaching could have caused the deaths of as many as 400 animals in Botswana since 2017.

Demands from southern African countries to allow international trade in elephant ivory are extremely dangerous. Proponents are trying to create the impression that wild populations are growing to problematic numbers when, in fact, the species remains in decline across the continent and is threatened with long-term extinction.

Human-elephant conflict poses major threats to the well-being of both humans and animals.

Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe will be submitting protest documents that will allow them to legally trade in elephants, rhinos and giraffes. 

A collared elephant has been hunted in Botswana, and the tracking device destroyed. Four other elephant bulls were hunted by the same party. The hunts took place in a remote area near the Dobe border post between Namibia and Botswana.

Botswana, home to the world’s largest elephant population, has held its first major auction for trophy elephant hunting quotas since scrapping a hunting ban last year.

Anecdotes about wild animals seemingly getting drunk after eating rotting fruit are widespread.

There is a significant amount of research and knowledge surrounding the role that older female African savannah elephants play in decision-making and leading their herds, but little is understood about the contribution of older males.

Human-elephant conflict: Managing elephants in a landscape that includes rural human communities is a major challenge in countries where elephant populations are increasing as a result of successful conservation measures.

Did fences in northern Botswana cause the mysterious death of hundreds of elephants in 2020?

The recent decision by the Namibian government to sell 170 elephants has been met with public outcries, media articles full of unsubstantiated accusations and considerable confusion.

Humans have been over-exploiting African elephants for centuries.

It goes without saying that humans have significantly reduced the habitat available to elephants across Africa (as is the case for almost every wild species).

Giraffes seem above it all. They float over the savanna like two-story ascetics, peering down at the fray from behind those long lashes.