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Commentary
Trophy Hunting: A Legal Mask for Ecological Injustice
By Noma Dube - Zimbabwe Elephant Foundation The global debate over trophy hunting is too often reduced to a question of legality versus illegality. That framing misses the point. The more useful question is one of values, governance, and the future of the continent’s most iconic wildlife populations. This is not an argument against any country or culture; it is a challenge to an outdated model that commodifies individual animals’ lives under the banner of conservation, while leaving the underlying ecological and community outcomes largely unexamined. The conservation-funding argument, tested...
A collar was not enough: Botswana’s failure to protect its research elephants from trophy hunters
By Adam Cruise - Daily Maverick The killings of two satellite-collared elephant bulls raise a much larger question than whether their collars were somehow overlooked: what is the point of declaring research animals protected if the state institutions responsible for wildlife cannot prevent hunters from killing them? Information from Botswana indicates that two satellite-collared elephant bulls were shot by trophy hunters on 3 and 4 September, in separate hunting areas and on separate hunts. Both animals were identifiable research elephants. Both wore collars. Both were apparently observed...
News
Mozambique: Twelve detained over attempt to sell elephant tusks
By Club of Mozambique Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) has detained twelve individuals for alleged involvement in sale of elephant tusks, hippo teeth and other protected...
Two collared research elephants hunted in Botswana on consecutive days
By Africa Geographic Two satellite-collared elephant bulls were trophy hunted in Botswana on consecutive days in September 2026. The elephants were killed in hunting areas CT2 and...
Vantara works with lobbyist tied to Trump Jr. and pro-hunting groups
By Spoorthy Raman - Mongabay Vantara, the controversial billionaire-run Indian zoo, has worked with lobbyists in the U.K. with ties to pro-hunting organizations and the Trump administration, sources...
Press releases
Over half of international tourists would question visiting South Africa if elephant culling is reinstated, new survey finds
By Humane World for Animals Humane World for Animals South Africa warns elephant culling could damage South Africa’s tourism appeal and conservation reputation CAPE TOWN, South Africa—Over half (60%) of international tourists would consider visiting a different country instead if elephant culling...
Studies
African elephants putatively self-medicate with medicinal plants in the Mount Elgon region, Kenya
By Fabien Schultz et al - Scientific Reports Abstract The Mount Elgon region...
Researchers analysing 469 rumbles from wild African elephants in Kenya found that calls contained name-like information
By Science Blog Machine learning found receiver-specific information in 469...
Elephant barrier behaviours in response to conflict mitigation fences
By Dominique Gonçalves, Robert J. Smith, Helen M. K. O'Neill - The Society for...
Reports
Scientific Review of Botswana’s Elephant Hunting Programme
By Mike Chase and Scott Schlossberg - Elephants Without Borders (EWB) Summary 1. In 2019, Botswana ended a five-year moratorium on the hunting of African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana). Here, we provide expert, outside review of the hunting programme and its scientific basis. Notably, we...
About
The Journal of African Elephants was created by a group of concerned journalists, biologists and conservationists, who, after years of tracking and documenting the catastrophic decline of Africa’s elephant populations, have recognised the urgent need for a dedicated English and French news and commentary space to enhance and increase global awareness of the plight of Africa’s savanna and forest elephants. Our Commentary service, in particular, are writers that focus on the need to provide awareness of Africa’s elephants and affected surrounding human communities from a distinctly African perspective that, for the most part, is lacking in the dominance of Western media.