https://www.elephanttrust.org/...in-bull-in-tanzania/


AMBOSELI SCIENTISTS REVEAL IDENTITY OF SLAIN BULL IN TANZANIA

Posted March 14, 2024
AMBOSELI SCIENTISTS REVEAL IDENTITY OF SLAIN BULL IN TANZANIA:
URGENT CALL TO PROTECT AMBOSELI ELEPHANTS FROM TROPHY HUNTING

Amboseli National Park, Kenya (14 March 2024): As international outcry continues over the killing by sport hunters of a third bull elephant in the Enduimet area of Tanzania, researchers at the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE) have today revealed the identity of the first victim.

After obtaining a photo of the carcass of the first male killed, before it was burned, Cynthia Moss, Director, and Norah Njiraini, Assistant Director of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, were able to positively identify the male as Gilgil, a well-known individual from the study population. Gilgil, the son of Golda, matriarch of the GB family, and fathered by huge, iconic bull Dionysus, was born in December 1987; at his death he was only 35 years old and just entering his reproductive years.
Moss and Njiraini were able to identify Gilgil because an elephant’s skin on its whole body is basically a giant fingerprint. With unique folds, creases, vein patterns, lumps and bumps, one elephant can easily be distinguished from another.



Gilgil became independent of the GB family, a central family consistently using the Park, when he was 13 years old in 2000. Since then he has been sighted 158 times. He was last recorded in the Park in January 2022.
The Amboseli elephants are a unique and iconic cross-border elephant population, sharing an ecosystem between Kenya and Tanzania. Since 1995, these elephants have utilized the area in relative peace, due to a moratorium on trophy hunting agreed to by both nations.

But last week, continuing an unexpected policy shift that began in 2023, a third Amboseli bull was shot dead on the Tanzanian side of the cross-border area by international sport hunters. This death, along with that of Gilgil killed in September and another bull in November of last year, signal the sudden end to thirty years of adherence to the cross-border agreement that protected the Amboseli elephants from hunting encroachment.

The Amboseli Trust for Elephants—with our partners ElephantVoices and Big Life—is calling on the governments of Kenya and Tanzania to resume cross-border collaboration and end trophy hunting in the West Kilimanjaro/Enduimet area. Such an action would renew the spirit of the original bilateral agreement and would also help protect the Amboseli elephants, who have already experienced such stressors as poaching, habitat loss, droughts, and human-wildlife conflict.

The Amboseli elephants who utilize this cross-border area have flourished in the three decades while the hunting ban was honored, becoming international symbols of successful conservation efforts. These elephants are not only sources of great scientific knowledge and key attractions for the eco-tourism economy, they also represent a unique and irreplaceable natural wildlife heritage for the people of both nations.

https://africageographic.com/?attachment_id=zyfqdoaya


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.

No way in hell they know exact weights of 99 and 110 lbs. Just saying…..

In the end it’s pretty simple
Tanzania game dept can put moratorium on bulls over 60 or 70 lbs tusks
Maybe go for at least one broken tusk etc.

quote:

Originally posted by M.Shy:
In the end it’s pretty simple
Tanzania game dept can put moratorium on bulls over 60 or 70 lbs tusks
Maybe go for at least one broken tusk etc.

I think that is what they do in the Associated Private Nature Reserves unfenced and bordering Kruger.

Again, sort of a pity to think that hunters cannot regulate their own conduct and it takes moritotiums, cross border regulations and the like to force hunters to just do the right thing. Sad really.

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
https://africageographic.com/?attachment_id=zyfqdoaya


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.

So he was breeding age. I do not believe you can compare tusk size across regions of Africa as a measure of age. Dr. Robertson has all but admitted this in the past when he started working w Buffalo outside of Zimbabwe.

The nutrition, genetics, and wear from food/ground are just too dissimilar. There is a reason in the old days bigger than 100 pounders came from this region and other parts of East Africa.

Given we had established this 100 pounder to be a prime breeding age for this region we need to adjust our mindset in the region. I am sure just like w buffalo, lion, to deer there are other factors besides the “head” size to establish a rule of thumb for aging.

To my mind the right bill to kill (density not an issue) is a bull of advanced age on poor teeth. Much better to pass a bull like this in a region where he will be 35 years old, and kill a 50 year old w broken, rounded, tusk. The tusk being very secondary. Similar to lion and mane being very secondary.

I am all for shooting old bulls. I do not understand the benefit of letting them starve on the last teeth.

Just my observation as a pro elephant hunting voice.

Gigil

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4...MWR0NnZ0aXJhNWNqYQ==

Two things come to mind with this bull and am just starting my opinion…not arguing a side with them.

1) This bull doesn’t really qualify as a super tusker in my mind. Does anyone have his weights?

2) The bull while mature…doesn’t even look like an old bull.

3) At 35…he may have very well made it to super tusker status at 40-45…or maybe not.

https://www.elephanttrust.org/...in-bull-in-tanzania/

The photo of Gilgil is from 2016 (see link).

Weights were 110 and 99.

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
https://www.elephanttrust.org/...in-bull-in-tanzania/

The photo of Gilgil is from 2016 (see link).

Weights were 110 and 99.

Thank you kindly Kathi. Makes more sense now. At 110 and 99…certainly qualifies as a super tusker. Are there recent pics of him anywhere?

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
https://www.elephanttrust.org/...in-bull-in-tanzania/

The photo of Gilgil is from 2016 (see link).

Weights were 110 and 99.

Thank you kindly Kathi. Makes more sense now. At 110 and 99…certainly qualifies as a super tusker. Are there recent pics of him anywhere?

There certainly must be. Such a positive ID can’t happen off of a simple description.

What I find interesting is this is the second Bull in that area described as a 100lb-er but only 35 years old. Let those buggers get to 50 and they will be amazing.

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
https://www.elephanttrust.org/...in-bull-in-tanzania/

The photo of Gilgil is from 2016 (see link).

Weights were 110 and 99.

Thank you kindly Kathi. Makes more sense now. At 110 and 99…certainly qualifies as a super tusker. Are there recent pics of him anywhere?

There certainly must be. Such a positive ID can’t happen off of a simple description.

What I find interesting is this is the second Bull in that area described as a 100lb-er but only 35 years old. Let those buggers get to 50 and they will be amazing.

Very true as they amass the bulk of ivory mass in the last quarter of their lives.

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
https://www.elephanttrust.org/...in-bull-in-tanzania/

The photo of Gilgil is from 2016 (see link).

Weights were 110 and 99.

Thank you kindly Kathi. Makes more sense now. At 110 and 99…certainly qualifies as a super tusker. Are there recent pics of him anywhere?

There certainly must be. Such a positive ID can’t happen off of a simple description.

What I find interesting is this is the second Bull in that area described as a 100lb-er but only 35 years old. Let those buggers get to 50 and they will be amazing.

or are they purposely under aging them to counter the argument we make about targeting old bulls past their prime?

Or over stating the ivory weight at time of death for similar purpose? The image from 2016 show a young bull with what approx size of ivory? Assume it is 60lbs (which I doubt, but just for arguments sake), would it have grown by 40+ lbs in just 6-7 years?

Good point Bwana. That is why I would like to see a recent pic of Gilgil.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwanamich:

quote:

Originally posted by BaxterB:

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
https://www.elephanttrust.org/...in-bull-in-tanzania/

The photo of Gilgil is from 2016 (see link).

Weights were 110 and 99.

Thank you kindly Kathi. Makes more sense now. At 110 and 99…certainly qualifies as a super tusker. Are there recent pics of him anywhere?

There certainly must be. Such a positive ID can’t happen off of a simple description.

What I find interesting is this is the second Bull in that area described as a 100lb-er but only 35 years old. Let those buggers get to 50 and they will be amazing.

or are they purposely under aging them to counter the argument we make about targeting old bulls past their prime?

Or over stating the ivory weight at time of death for similar purpose? The image from 2016 show a young bull with what approx size of ivory? Assume it is 60lbs (which I doubt, but just for arguments sake), would it have grown by 40+ lbs in just 6-7 years?

Saeed posted the link to the study elsewhere, you can find it here: https://www.elephanttrust.org/

In the family histories (under 'output'), if you look in the G-family, you can see that GilGil, one of the big tuskers shot, was born in December 1987, so he was 37.