# Elephant hunting legalized!!!



## ELKARCHER (Apr 21, 2003)

Zambia to reintroduce elephant hunting
By Katongo Chisupa
Special to World Peace Herald 
Published May 23, 2005 
LUSAKA, Zambia -- Zambia is expected to re-introduce elephant sport hunting soon in two of its top national parks, after it was suspended over twenty years ago due to steep decline in the population, wildlife experts have revealed. 

"The country now has the capacity to harvest a maximum quota of 40 tusks (20 elephants) from sport hunting and problem animal measures for the Zambian African elephant populations in [the] lower Zambezi Area Management Unit (LZAMU) and South Luangwa Area Management Unit (SLAMU)," an official said. 

Only two areas will be designated for elephant sport hunting: the Lower Zambezi Area Management Unit (Chiawa and Rufunsa game management areas) in the southern part of the country and the South Luangwa Area Management Unit (Lupande game management area) in the eastern province, where elephant numbers have been monitored and data is available. 

According to officials, the primary objective of the initiative is to promote the sustainable conservation of elephants in these two area management units. 

Elephant sport hunting based on a quota that will provide for the conservation of the species and benefits to local communities is extremely important, according to the Government. 

Proceeds from elephant sport hunting will be reinvested into elephant conservation and sustainable development in local communities for the benefit of the people living within the two elephant hunting areas. 

The Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) argues that it needs additional resources to reinvest into elephant protection if it is to strengthen the elephant management program. To obtain the best out of the elephant population, the government says it is wise to utilize a small portion of the population, through sport hunting in two of Zambia's core areas where elephant populations have increased. 

A legally binding benefit-sharing mechanism of revenue from the sustainable utilization of wildlife products in Zambia has already been established. ZAWA retains 100 percent of hunting concessions fees, while revenue from animal fees are shared equally between ZAWA and the local communities. It is expected the same formula will be applied to elephant sport hunting. 

According to a detailed report from ZAWA, the hunting will be governed by numerous restrictions aimed at insuring that only the approved quota of elephants will be available for sport hunting. 

Hunters will be required to purchase hunting licenses through the existing safari outfitter. After the hunt, hunters will be required to obtain certificates of ownership that will list the details of trophies, ivory and skin to provide for stricter monitoring of both hunting activity and the movement of trophies. 

Each tusk will be marked in accordance with the requirements of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Enforcement personnel from the CITES secretariat will be able to monitor and check all the stages and processes of elephant sport hunting in Zambia. Hunters will be allowed to export back to their countries only the items cleared through this process. 

The ZAWA report says Zambia will need foreign support for law enforcement if it is to carry out the sport-hunting program effectively. 

The government says it doesn't see many problems arising, because the proposed hunting areas are some of the best-funded areas in Zambia's wildlife estates. 

Since trade in wildlife products in Zambia are governed by veterinary regulations, all the individual ivory specimens will have to be fumigated prior to shipment. 

The government's rationale behind the reintroduction of sport hunting is that protected areas alone are inadequate to ensure the survival of the elephants, especially in arid and semi-arid areas such as the Lower Zambezi and South Luangwa Protected Area Management Units, where competition with humans for resources is high. 

ZAWA argues that elephants in this case must return tangible economic benefits to landowners or communities sharing habitat with them, without which elephant conservation will always be marginal to other land use forms, and that elephants must simply have a strong commercial value. At the moment, the value that is only limited to eco-tourism has its serious limitations. 

The government agrees with the primary concern of poor rural communities, which is to fight the injustice that elephants inflict on them in the destruction of their livelihood by the loss of crops and human life. Examples abound: in the South Luangwa Area Management Unit, 60 percent of the problem animal cases are caused by elephants, which endanger human lives and cause damage to crops, threatening food security in the area due to heavy crop damage at the peak of the crop-growing season. This is one of the areas that have been earmarked for elephant sport hunting. 

The government hopes that revenue from elephant sport hunting will therefore significantly assist local communities who in a great way have suffered costs of conservation, exacerbated by there being no scheme for compensation. 

The undertaking will further offer relief and bring confidence to the community, as they will now place value on elephants unlike at present where communities see elephants as a threat and menace to their livelihoods. 

"Conservation of elephants is important but satisfying the basic needs of resident human populations is even more critical," says the position paper. 

A changed perception about elephants would enable the community to tolerate and accept coexistence with them. This would secure a promise for habitat, and thus diminish threats to land conversions. 

So far, since the benefit-sharing of revenue from wildlife resources was introduced in Zambia in 1994, communities have benefited from this program through increased opportunities to satisfy livelihood needs, improved health services, education and better food security. 

Sport hunting will contribute to the survival of the elephant, given that resources will be channeled towards conservation activities and improving rural livelihoods. This will ensure that opportunity costs for poaching are rendered unattractive by reducing success rates, which in turn would make enforcement cheap. 

As a party to CITES, Zambia is required to abide by the requirements of the Convention, while at the same time look into the interest of her citizens. The government here says it would be unethical to enforce the Convention at the expense of people's lives, hence the need to accommodate resource utilization pathways that will bring the best for both human life and wildlife resources within their environs. 

From the CITES point of view, elephants are a global species. This puts the country at a great disadvantage, because as a third world country conservation is usually not a funding priority for the government. The Zambian government, like many others in the developing world, has too many pressing social and economic needs to be able to consider any meaningful commitment to elephant conservation. 

The government therefore feels strongly that trophy hunting of elephants will pay for the cost of conservation in the range areas. With Zambia's poorly performing economy, elephant conservation can no longer be subsidized by the government. 

Zambia's elephant population currently stands at between 22,000 and 25,000. 

Zambia banned elephant sport hunting in 1982. The local trade in elephant products continued until 1989, when the species was placed on Appendix I of CITES. 

Since then, the country has not directly exploited its elephant population for commercial trade or domestic consumption, either as live or their products, except through sport hunting before the ban in 1982. Under this recreational hunting activity, small quotas for elephants were allocated in selected Game Management Areas with potential elephant populations. All the revenues generated from hunting were banked into central government treasury. 

At that time, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (now ZAWA) could not use these revenues directly for the conservation of the elephant population. The situation has now changed. All the revenue from hunting is collected by ZAWA and shared with the local communities for improving their livelihoods and also re-invested into conservation. 

Elephants in Zambia are in Appendix I of the CITES listing, which prohibits commercial trade in elephant and elephant products. 

ZAWA will issue a hunting license to the hunter, and will facilitate preparation of records (trophy size, weight, length, sex, identification marking) and ownership certificates. 

At the time of export, CITES documents will be issued and only international airports have been designated as ports of exit to the hunter's destination. 

Furthermore, law enforcement has been enhanced by the formation of the CITES National Coordinating Secretariat for multi-sectoral implementation of CITES in Zambia. 

The ivory shall be clearly and permanently marked with punch-dies or, where this is not practicable, with indelible ink, using a special formula. A certificate of ownership, bearing details of the client and the trophy will be granted to the owner of the trophy. The government will retain duplicate copies and shall be the property of Zambia for future reference. 

The trophies, including other parts such as feet, ears, etc., will be exported to the hunter's destination with prior authority from the importing through an import permit. 

The meat from elephants will be given to the local community in the hunting areas as a source of protein.


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## Matatazela (Mar 1, 2005)

*Elephant Hunting in South Africa*

Excellent news!

Read about another elephant hunt at http://www.africasbowhunter.co.za/home.html

Go to the link on the right of the page to Single Shot Elephant and salivate over this achievement!


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## SgtBoneCrusher (Jan 29, 2005)

wow, what a rush.......my dream hunt is kodiaks with my recurve........up close and personal.....but I think an elephant with a compound would suffice...what do they do with the elephant after you kill it? skin it?


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## dahmer (Jan 16, 2005)

You definitely don't drag it out by yourself  .


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## Matatazela (Mar 1, 2005)

Real men don't drag their quarry, they carry it!  

The meat is usually distributed to communities living around the reserve or concession area. The skin is probably to be used for leather, while the the trophy is kept by the hunter. Nothing goes to waste, though.


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## LinuxDude (Jan 26, 2005)

*Please don't say chicken...*

What does elephant taste like? How long does it take to butcher one?


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## dahmer (Jan 16, 2005)

Matatazela said:


> Real men don't drag their quarry, they carry it!
> 
> The meat is usually distributed to communities living around the reserve or concession area. The skin is probably to be used for leather, while the the trophy is kept by the hunter. Nothing goes to waste, though.



Carry it  ! You're a better man than I Ghunga Dihn!


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## derekm (Feb 19, 2004)

SgtBoneCrusher said:


> wow, what a rush.......my dream hunt is kodiaks with my recurve........up close and personal.....but I think an elephant with a compound would suffice...what do they do with the elephant after you kill it? skin it?


how many arrows would it take to down a bear? It would certainly improve the speed of nock draw and aim, perhaps a longbow would be better :teeth:


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## derekm (Feb 19, 2004)

SgtBoneCrusher said:


> wow, what a rush.......my dream hunt is kodiaks with my recurve........up close and personal.....but I think an elephant with a compound would suffice...what do they do with the elephant after you kill it? skin it?


how many arrows would it take to down a bear? It would certainly improve the speed of nock draw and aim, perhaps a longbow would be better :teeth:


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## mavrick03usa (May 20, 2005)

Wonder what type of broad head one will need on the thick skin of an elephant??? the plus side is that the heart is the size of a basketball or bigger!


Mav


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## ELKARCHER (Apr 21, 2003)

Tink posted some personal expeience on this. With photos


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## Dugga Boy (Apr 21, 2003)

mavrick03usa said:


> Wonder what type of broad head one will need on the thick skin of an elephant??? the plus side is that the heart is the size of a basketball or bigger!
> Mav


Only COC twobladers or better singlebladers with 2 cutting edges are suitable for Dumbo.

FYI, last year at least four African elephants had been shot with SilverFlame broadheads 180gr., maybe more.
One (wealthy and famous) bowhunter shot two elephants at one weekend. One shot was a complete pass-through (no ribs involved), on the other one the arrow/broadhead sliced through a rib and disappeared completely in the vital area.
My bad luck is that this certain bowhunter is sponsored by one of the big bh manufacturers and will never tell in public that he used the SilverFlames.
Tricky business...but so what.
By the way, he used a 100# PSE and 1300gr. arrows (Easton 2440)


-


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## ballagh (Oct 25, 2004)

We had Chuck Adams at our Bowhunter Banquet. He talked to us about his elephant hunt. He used a easton aluminum, inside another easton aluminum arrow, and a two blade broadhead. He got er done, but damn near killed his guide. he recommended to their goverment to never let anyone bowhunt them!


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## Matatazela (Mar 1, 2005)

dahmer said:


> Carry it  ! You're a better man than I Ghunga Dihn!



Okay! The trick is to cut it into a lot of small pieces first! :thumbs_up


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## Dugga Boy (Apr 21, 2003)

ballagh said:


> We had Chuck Adams at our Bowhunter Banquet. He talked to us about his elephant hunt. He used a easton aluminum, inside another easton aluminum arrow, and a two blade broadhead. He got er done, but damn near killed his guide. he recommended to their goverment to never let anyone bowhunt them!


If he was talking about his elephant hunt trauma happened approx. 20 years ago, I would say "yes", don't hunt an elephant with such an minor effective bow and such fat arrows.
Equipment is paramount.
Some elephant hunters even recommend a frontal shot, right beneath the trunk. There is a 12" spot above the breast bone. The skin is much thinner there and the hearts upper half is right behind. No bones to break.
_


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## Matatazela (Mar 1, 2005)

The broadheads in the artice referred to were mechanicals. I must say that I would not be too comfortable with that, preferring to use a fixed blade. 

The German Kinetics are the most solid and precise that I know of and, given the opportunity to hunt a Jumbo, would not hesitate to use them.

Good product, Duggaboy! You are well represented here in South Africa!


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## Dugga Boy (Apr 21, 2003)

Matatazela said:


> Good product, Duggaboy! You are well represented here in South Africa!


Am I??  
Ok, I have a dealer downthere who sells a few bh's but I didn't know that anybody represents me in SA.


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## Matatazela (Mar 1, 2005)

duggaboy said:


> Am I??
> Ok, I have a dealer downthere who sells a few bh's but I didn't know that anybody represents me in SA.


Every one of your broadheads is a silent salesman!


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## bushbuck (Feb 6, 2005)

I wonder if They are going to allow bowhunters to take part in this elephant hunt. At this time I was told there is no place that You can legaly hunt elephant with a bow, I may be wrong as the laws keep changing. We are considering a dart hunt for Jumbo next year when we are going on a leopard hunt. The only reason we were doing that was because we were told We could not get a permit to kill an elephant with a bow. 
Does anyone know where that stands, both on this hunt and anywhere else?


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## Dugga Boy (Apr 21, 2003)

As far as I know hunting elephant is legal in all southern African countries. Only the forest elephant in central Africa are protected.
During the last 20 years the elephant population raised quicker than anybody thought after the ivory trading had been prohibited. 
For the last 10 years US organizations like PETA and other nature fakers discovered the value of propaganda the big animals of the Dark Continent offer.
Since a few years nature conservation and goverment realized that those ridiculous attempts of chemical birth control failed and that serious hunters bring more money into the country than the animal rightists.

The Kruger National Park alone got 5000 elephants more than it can bear.
The consequences for nature are devastating since an adult elephant needs at least 350# of green food each day.


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## bushbuck (Feb 6, 2005)

Duggaboy,
I believe there are many countries that You can hunt elephant with a gun, but what I was asking was with a bow. I was just told there are no countries that allow bowhunting for elephant at this time. Again I am not positive that is the case. 
I would love to go on an elephant hunt someday, But I am really not interested in taking one with a gun at this time. There are actually some pretty good deals right now in Bottswanna for Jumbo, but I can only find gun hunts. 
Did You mean that You believe it is legal to hunt in all southern African countries for elephant with a bow?


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## Dugga Boy (Apr 21, 2003)

Bushbuck (by the way my favourite antelope next to Nyala),

I know for sure it's legal to bowhunt elephant in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
In other countries like Zambia, Mocambique and Namibia I'm not absolutely sure but they are open for bowhunting and probably one just has to ask.

Actually most elephants get hunted by bow in Botswana since population exploded overthere.


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## Mr. October (Feb 15, 2003)

ballagh said:


> We had Chuck Adams at our Bowhunter Banquet. He talked to us about his elephant hunt. He used a easton aluminum, inside another easton aluminum arrow, and a two blade broadhead. He got er done, but damn near killed his guide. he recommended to their goverment to never let anyone bowhunt them!


While I have the utmost respect for Chuck Adams, on this hunt he didn't do what he was told to do by a bunch of experienced hunters. He insisted his way would work. It didn't and he subsequently put a great big black mark on modern bowhunting. Plenty of people have killed elephants with a bow before and after Chuck did a miserable job of it.


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## bushbuck (Feb 6, 2005)

duggaboy said:


> Bushbuck (by the way my favourite antelope next to Nyala),
> 
> I know for sure it's legal to bowhunt elephant in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
> In other countries like Zambia, Mocambique and Namibia I'm not absolutely sure but they are open for bowhunting and probably one just has to ask.
> ...


well You certainly have good taste in the spiral horns..I am going to have to look further into this. This is exciting news, I hope it turns out to be true...
Thanks
I am leaving for RSA Tuesday and hope to get both Nyala and Bushbuck


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## Dugga Boy (Apr 21, 2003)

bushbuck said:


> well You certainly have good taste in the spiral horns..I am going to have to look further into this. This is exciting news, I hope it turns out to be true...
> Thanks
> I am leaving for RSA Tuesday and hope to get both Nyala and Bushbuck


Man, now you got me jealous.
Best of luck for your hunt and let us see some pics when you're done.

I hope to get my feet back on the red earth next year. Africa is burning inside me.


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## Matatazela (Mar 1, 2005)

Duggaboy is right. With some planning, it is legal (certainly in South Africa, at least) to hunt Jumbo with a bow. 

If you want info on anything in South Africa, give me an email or send a PM. I live there and would gladly help out with info where I can!

BTW - Nyala is definitely on my list too!!!


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