Posted on 04/04/2024 2:49:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Home to the world’s largest elephant population, Botswana has already gifted 8,000 of the animals to Angola and offered another 500 to Mozambique.
For the second time this year, Botswana has threatened to send thousands of elephants to Europe.
In March, the southern African nation warned it would fill one of London’s parks with the animals.
Now, the president has said his country will send 20,000 elephants to Germany.
The warnings have been sparked by a diplomatic row as the UK and Germany mull the idea of stricter limits on the import of hunting trophies amid concerns over poaching.
Why is Botswana threatening to send elephants to Europe?
In March, Botswana’s wildlife minister threatened to send 10,000 elephants to Hyde Park in London so the UK could “have a taste of living alongside them”.
It came as the British government raised the possibility of preventing UK safari hunters from importing trophies from their kills.
Germany has now voiced a similar possibility, prompting more backlash from the African nation.
Botswana says a ban on importing hunting trophies would be an economic blow for citizens by cutting safari revenue.
In addition, conservation campaigns have resulted in a boom in the elephant population and hunting is a vital means of controlling numbers, President Mokgweetsi Masisi told German daily paper Bild.
Why is elephant hunting legal in Botswana?
Botswana introduced a ban on trophy hunting in 2014 but reversed the decision in 2019 and began issuing yearly hunting quotas amid pressure from local communities who depend on the income from international hunters.
The growing population of elephants has meant herds have been wreaking havoc in the country, damaging homes, drinking water from pipes, feeding on crops and trampling people to death.
“It is very easy to sit in Berlin and have an opinion about our affairs in Botswana. We are paying the price for preserving these animals for the world,” Masisi told Bild.
He said Germans should try to “live together with the animals, in the way you are trying to tell us to.”
With elephant numbers now at around 130,000, Masisi said it was “not a joke”.
Home to the world’s largest elephant population, Botswana has already gifted 8,000 of the animals to Angola and offered another 500 to Mozambique.
“We would like to offer such a gift to Germany,” Masisi said, adding that he would “not take no for an answer.”
Germany is the largest importer of African elephant trophies in the European Union, according to a 2021 report by the Humane Society International.
Tru dat
Q: how will the elephants travel?
A: by trunk road.
Central Park in New York could use a few hundred Grizzly Bears too. Might make some idiot leftists re- think their stance on a few issues too.
From what I remember watching the nature shows, elephants swim very well.
Wolves, lots of Wolves.
Send them to Martha’s Vineyard.
Send the bull elephants that kill green eco tourists,
Almost all colonies in Africa lost money for the countries colonizing them.
There is a Underground station called Elephant & Castle, named after a pub I think is no longer there.
Send 5000 to DC. Maybe the Republicans will learn something.
5.56mm
Pretty funny how Western tree huggers, whose ancestors drove large and dangerous animals extinct in their own countries, want to keep these same animals around in poor countries. People who live in poor countries understand that one of the reasons rich countries thrived was because they avoided the daily danger of random death from dangerous animals by mostly wiping them out.
Wolves, lots of Wolves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QELXx5u8u44
The best time an elephant herd can have is a pool party. :)
This elephant has a favorite stroke:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbJGh7dkSWY
The longest distance they can swim is 22 miles. I suspect much of it is actually walking submerged since they have built in snorkels. The smaller elephants, especially the babies, would be at the most risk for relocation swimming. Generally, their swimming is just for purposed of cooling off and fun, not for moving.
First you have to get the EU to declare Elephants a protected species and have a 120 page bill of their rights.
as soon as the Elephants are protected you should ride them into all the EU countries.
Good example of how hunters can the be best conservationists. And do-gooders end up doing harm.
Marriage
Lots of people are willing to pay to shoot the excess elephants. The Germans and British do not want to allow them to return to Germany and England with their trophies.
It can be a win-win. The leftwing deep-green neo-pagans are unwilling to allow it to happen.
Sounds like many of the would-be hunters don’t want to pay to shoot an elephant if they can’t take a trophy home. That’s their choice, and if the governments of England and Germany won’t allow it, that’s between the hunters and their governments.
But there’s nothing preventing Botswana from culling its own excess elephant population even if foreign hunters don’t come.
Elephants are very smart and are definitely family-oriented. {personally, I like them better than most people and hate having them used as pawns in stupid games.
Send them to Kenya, where Sheldrick Wildlife protects them. Great place to take a safari to see them an other wild animals, some extremely endangered.
It has never worked out well for Europe when Africa sends elephants.
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