Brussels 18.08.2024 Conservationists sent a petition to Tanzania this week to end elephant trophy hunting in a vast wildlife reserve area that spans its common border with Kenya.

About 2,000 elephants, including the “super-tuskers,” so called because of their large tusks, roam the wildlife conservation range named as Amboseli National Park on the Kenyan side and Enduimet Wildlife Management Area on the Tanzania side.
However hunting laws from two sides of the border are different. Unlike Kenya where trophy hunting is illegal, Tanzania allows sport hunting of elephants for prized tusks and issues permits. That has resulted in incidents when avid hunters killed Kenyan elephants from across the border.

“The loss of these elephants is not just a blow to elephant populations but to our collective efforts in conservation,” Cynthia Moss, founder of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, said.
The petition by more than 50 Africa wildlife conservation organisations, was also backed by 500,000 signatures of those concerned by preservation of nature in Africa.
Only 10 super-tuskers with tusks weighing around 45 kg each remain in the Amboseli ecosystem, which has the highest density of these animals, according to conservationists.

Available data shows that with the death of the five, only 10 super tuskers are now remaining in the Amboseli ecosystem which has the highest density of them. If licensing continues these species will disappear within the next three years according to Dr. Kahumbu yet they play a significant ecological and economic value since they are a unique genetic reservoir that transcends national borders.