https://biologicaldiversity.or...lephants-2024-07-08/



For Immediate Release, July 8, 2024

Contact:

Cynthia Moss, Amboseli Trust for Elephants (Kenya), +254-722-208762, cmoss@elephanttrust.org
Joyce Poole, ElephantVoices (Norway), +47-456-64564, jpoole@elephantvoices.org
Keith Lindsay, Amboseli Trust for Elephants (UK), +44-776-7747091, wklindsay@gmail.com
Tanya Sanerib, Center for Biological Diversity (US), +1-206-3797363, tsanerib@biologicaldiversity.org

Ban Sought on U.S. Trophy Hunters’ Imports of Famed Amboseli Elephants

Population Subjected to Trophy Hunting for First Time Since 1994

WASHINGTON— Conservation groups and scientists filed a petition with the United States government today to stop U.S. hunters from importing elephant trophies from the famed cross-border Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro elephant population inhabiting Kenya and Tanzania. For 30 years this longest-studied elephant population was safe from trophy hunters but now some of the world’s most iconic male elephants are at risk of being killed in the Tanzanian portion of their range if trophy hunting is allowed to continue.

Today’s petition to the Interior Department and the Fish and Wildlife Service seeks a permanent rule banning U.S. trophy imports from the Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro elephant population. The petition was filed by Amboseli Trust for Elephants, ElephantVoices and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Over the past nine months, five mature males have been killed by trophy hunters. At least two of them qualify as “super-tuskers,” with one or more tusks weighing 100 pounds. Among the five killed, only one has been identified — an elephant named Gilgil. In an unprecedented practice, all the carcasses were burned and some were also buried, presumably to prevent identification of the animals.

“Singling out male elephants with large tusks takes away the natural elements of competition and survivorship, allowing younger, less tested, perhaps less vigorous males to reproduce,” said Cynthia Moss, director of Amboseli Trust for Elephants. “A population that is hunted becomes unnatural because humans are choosing who should pass on his genes and who should not, who should live and who should die.”

Prior to the latest killings, no males from the Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro population had been shot for their tusks since 1994, when four were killed. Following that incident, an informal agreement was reached between the two countries to protect the population from hunting on the Tanzanian side of the border. Kenya does not permit trophy hunting.

“These magnificent prime breeding males hold immense sustainable biological, economic and cultural value while alive, but their contribution to both human and elephant societies ends once they’re killed,” said Joyce Poole, scientific director at ElephantVoices. “As the largest importer of elephant trophies from Tanzania, the U.S. could greatly help protect these elephants by preventing the importation of tusks from this unique population.”

A U.S. trophy hunter from Texas killed one of the elephants in the recent hunts, and it’s likely others from the United States have been involved as well. The U.S. is the largest importer globally of elephant trophies from Tanzania. Shutting down the U.S. market could go a long way toward protecting these elephants from trophy hunters’ bullets.

“Seventy percent of Africa's elephants are in transboundary populations and hunting should not be carried out without first considering whether it harms the resources of a neighboring country, particularly when wildlife policies differ as in the case of Kenya and Tanzania,” said Keith Lindsay, collaborating researcher Amboseli Trust for Elephants. “This view is shared by elephant conservation organizations and by international agreements, such as the Convention on Migratory Species.”

Scientists estimate there are only 20-25 remaining mature males from the population that spends time in Tanzania and have intact tusks. Removal of these mature bulls is detrimental to the Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro population. Those males are preferred by females for breeding, needed for social structure and cohesion, help perpetuate the unique large-tusked genes in the population, and are a huge draw for photo-seeking tourists in both Kenya and Tanzania.

Researcher Cynthia Moss began studying the Amboseli elephants 51 years ago, selecting the population because it was well-protected. Research by Moss and her colleagues has formed the basis of much of what’s known today about elephants, including the recent study finding that elephants use names for each other.

“My heart is breaking for these elephants and the scientists who know them like family. I’m enraged that anyone would allow members of this cherished and famous population to be shot down for sport,” said Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “I hope the U.S. government is courageous enough to protect this population in perpetuity before it’s irrevocably decimated by trophy hunters.”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s 2020 reassessment of elephants judged that African savanna elephants are endangered.

https://biologicaldiversity.or...W-Kil-Population.pdf


Link to petition.

Thank you Kathi for sharing.

Our Government is making it difficult to bring back legally hunting animals.

And this petition will, add to the issues for hunters to bring in their trophies.

So basically they are really trying to ban hunting in areas that are open for hunting??

How can this be??

Kenya has a hunting ban.

Tanzania does not.

What right has Kenya got to impose their laws on another country??

Well, we all know the the West already doing it.

Now Kenya wants to apply the same rules I suppose!

It is time to use the recent Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright which overturned Chevron Deference against them. The Center for Biological Diversity is asking the bureaucrats at the Dept of the Interior to make up stuff not authorized by Congress. The SCOTUS said no to that.

quote:

Originally posted by John Richardson:
It is time to use the recent Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright which overturned Chevron Deference against them. The Center for Biological Diversity is asking the bureaucrats at the Dept of the Interior to make up stuff not authorized by Congress. The SCOTUS said no to that.

I agree 100%.

But I thought you said no lawyers, only guns and money?

Something to consider: Those bulls in Amboseli and neighboring Tanzania carry the genetics for big ivory. Would it not be wise to protect those bulls for breeding? A management tool not unlike the taking of tuskless elephants. Eliminate an undesirable trait caused by decades of poaching. In the case of the Amboseli bulls, allow them to pass that trait on. And then sustainably harvest the results. I fully understand that this is a decades long proposition and most of us will not see the results in our lifetime.

Jdd51 you are absolutely right of course but there are far too many, even some on this forum, who don't give a monkey's fart about the long term future of the species or the hunting opportunities of their grandchildren. You can see how well longterm thinking works in Europe with constant improvement in trophy quality. Some people are more concerned with the "My tusks are bigger than your tusks" attitude of SCI.
The risks and thrills of hunting a tuskless or a tiny-tusked mature bull are just the same as taking a giant tusker that just wandered out of a park, perhaps more so.
I am hunting the area where those bulls were taken in November but I won't be shooting elephants.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
So basically they are really trying to ban hunting in areas that are open for hunting??

How can this be??

Kenya has a hunting ban.

Tanzania does not.

What right has Kenya got to impose their laws on another country??

Well, we all know the the West already doing it.

Now Kenya wants to apply the same rules I suppose!

I believe they are simply trying (as always) to exert political pressure on the US to disallow the legal import here to dissuade “us” (the hunting community) from hunting these areas.
CITES either stands or it doesn’t
CITES essentially falls due to BS like this and all hell could break loose

Step by step, inch by inch. True intentions: Stop all hunting worldwide. Live on soy meat and protein drinks. Next human evolution: turn into Slugs.

The better way to deal with it is via adjusting quotas and proper management.

If the quota is sustainable, then there should be no loss of genetic diversity, should there?

If your argument is the quota is too high and not sustainable, present that data… but to declare a whole population not subject to scientific management says that you either don’t trust the science, or you have a different agenda there.

It’s my understanding that elephant don’t transplant well- that they head back to where they want to be.

I agree you should take only animals that don’t harm the population by shooting them… but it’s a canard that we should protect the Ambroseli herd differently than other populations.

quote:

Originally posted by the Pom:
Jdd51 you are absolutely right of course but there are far too many, even some on this forum, who don't give a monkey's fart about the long term future of the species or the hunting opportunities of their grandchildren. You can see how well longterm thinking works in Europe with constant improvement in trophy quality. Some people are more concerned with the "My tusks are bigger than your tusks" attitude of SCI.
The risks and thrills of hunting a tuskless or a tiny-tusked mature bull are just the same as taking a giant tusker that just wandered out of a park, perhaps more so.
I am hunting the area where those bulls were taken in November but I won't be shooting elephants.

If the larger bulls that are being taken are the older males then wouldn’t they have already passed on their genes?