![\"Amboseli](\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/07\/22092037\/ElephantVoices_IMG_9070.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Vital insights into elephant behavior and their social lives have emerged from the project, including a recent finding that they appear to call each other by names. Elephant populations have suffered precipitous declines in Africa due to poaching, habitat loss and human conflicts. However, removing large bulls could have an outsized impact on the larger group, backers of the ban say.<\/p>\n
Interested groups like hunting bodies and conservation organizations sometimes focus on the impact on pachyderm populations. This overlooks the importance of individuals in communities formed by highly social animals like elephants. Poole said bulls older than 35 years are \u201ckeystones\u201d for male society. \u201cJust like in humans, you can\u2019t just take out a leader in the society and think it doesn\u2019t have repercussions,\u201d Poole said.<\/p>\n
Older bulls help guide the behavior of younger males, especially adolescent elephants. The survival of these males, many of whom continue to breed, is also critical to preserving the genetic pool that has yielded magnificently endowed males in the first place. These males carry the genes for tusks grander than those found elsewhere.<\/p>\n
An unofficial agreement<\/h2>\n
There\u2019s another reason taking out these majestic tuskers is a bad idea, conservationists say. They\u2019re a big draw for tourists, and countries like Kenya and Tanzania are important wildlife tourism destinations, home to some of the last iconic bulls emblematic of wildlife in the region.<\/p>\n
Many businesses that organize hunting safaris also arrange expeditions to spot wildlife. \u201cThe last thing you want is for someone to shoot elephants that are part of a long-term study and bring the industry a bad name,\u201d Poole told Mongabay.<\/p>\n
Kenya was a prominent trophy-hunting destination prior to a ban in 1977. Neighboring Tanzania continues to allow trophy hunting and issues permits to safari operators through a bidding process. There are hunting concessions along the Kenya-Tanzania border, and elephants in Amboseli, whose range stretches over 30,000 square kilometers (11,600 square miles), most of it in Kenya, are known to cross over.<\/p>\n
Until recently, according to Moss, a \u201cgentlemen\u2019s agreement\u201d held where hunters in Tanzania didn\u2019t target tuskers from Amboseli. It was in recognition of their importance as \u201cresearch subjects\u201d and also because they\u2019re so habituated to human presence. \u201cShooting an Amboseli bull \u2026 is about as sporting as shooting your neighbor\u2019s poodle,\u201d Moss said in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n
However, the discovery of elephant carcasses by conservationists in Tanzania, who alerted their counterparts in Kenya, signaled the end of this unwritten accord. \u201cWe were only able to identify the first elephant killed,\u201d Moss said. \u201cIt was an elephant I had known since he was born. His name was Gilgil.\u201d They could identify Gilgil because someone photographed the corpse before it was allegedly set on fire. The hunters burnt the carcasses to prevent identification, Moss said.<\/p>\n
After hunters felled the first of the five \u201csuper tuskers\u201d \u2014 so called because their tusks weigh more than 100 pounds, or 45 kilograms \u2014 and claimed its majestic tusks, the incident drew in other clients searching for their own \u201ctrophies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without any official agreement between the two countries\u2019 wildlife authorities, the accord depends on its acceptance by individual hunting operators.<\/p>\n
In 2023, a new company won the hunting bid for a concession bordering Amboseli on the Tanzanian side. The website of Kilombero North Safaris promises \u201cTanzania\u2019s premiere big game safari experience.\u201d Online, hordes of angry elephant lovers have left reviews criticizing the business and calling for hunters to boycott it.<\/p>\n