Botswana order puts jumbo in crosshairs

Elephant at Maasai Mara. [Wilberforce Okwiri/Standard]

Botswana, home to the world’s largest elephant population, may lift a ban on hunting for sport in the face of what the government says is growing conflict between humans and wildlife, a move sure to provoke protest from animal welfare groups.

Conservationists estimate the land-locked southern African country to have around 130,000 elephants, close to a third of the continent’s population, but the government says the number is closer to 230,000, causing problems for small-scale farmers.