https://www.reuters.com/articl...ephant-idUSKBN1YJ0B3



Botswana bans hunters after killing of research elephant


GABERONE (Reuters) - Botswana’s government has revoked the licenses of two professional hunters who shot dead a research elephant and then destroyed its collar to try to hide the evidence.

In a statement late on Saturday, the environment and tourism ministry said that professional hunters Michael Lee Potter and Kevin Sharp had surrendered their licenses after shooting the elephant at the end of last month.

Their nationalities could not be immediately established. Potter was banned for an indefinite period and Sharp for three years. Neither hunter was available for comment.



“In addition, the two hunters will replace the destroyed collar,” the ministry said. “The Ministry will work with the hunting industry to ensure that the necessary ethical standards are upheld.”

The shooting recalled the killing of ‘Cecil the lion’ by an American hunter in neighboring Zimbabwe in 2015, also an animal that had a research collar and was supposed to be protected. His death provoked outrage on social media.

Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi sparked global controversy when he lifted a ban on elephant hunting in May. The ban had been installed five years earlier by his predecessor, Ian Khama, an ardent conservationist.



Africa’s overall elephant population is declining due to poaching but Botswana, home to almost a third of the continent’s elephants, has seen numbers grow to 130,000 from 80,000 in the late 1990s.

Officials in the southern African country say the animals are causing problems for farmers by ripping up their crops, so hunting is necessary to reduce their numbers.

The mostly arid country the size of France has a human population of around 2.3 million, and its expanses of wilderness draw millions of foreign tourists to view its wildlife.

Reporting by Brian Benza; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Research animals are legally shot all the time. It happens and most of the researchers understand they will lose animals to hunting just as they lose them to starvation, disease, and natural predation/injury.

Pretty stupid to attempt to cover it up.

Don’t say I have not told you before.

We had several discussions on here about shooting collared animals.

Personally, I will not shoot any animal with a collar.

I know it happens that one might not see it, but to actually destroy the collar to hide what had happened is wrong.

In the bigger scheme of things, shooting an animal does not distract from the research being done.

But in today’s climate, it is not a very wise decision to make.

It is actually pretty easy to miss a sat collar on an elephant. If all you see is a frontal view, you will never spot the collar.

No one knows if Potter and Sharp knew the animal or just happened upon it. Regardless, they should have known trying to hide the incident was only going to result in a bigger problem for everyone.

And it's not a problem if you do it the correct way and don't blast the incident and hunt all over social media or attempt to hide the evidence. As I said, it happens regularly.

I can understand the accidental shooting of a collared animal. Or even a non-accidental shooting if everything was on the up and up.

But the cover-up was inexcusable.

Collared cougars are taken in the U.S. at times and the researchers know it's legal and just have to work with it. I wouldn't shoot a collared animal knowing how important the research is. The cover up is what always gets you.

So the ban has been lifted all of 6 months and you shoot a collared animal either on purpose or by accident and then try to hide the evidence.

If the animal that was shot was a legal shot, why hide the evidence?

PDD (Pretty Damn Dumb)

Anyone familiar with the pH’s? What country they’re from?