Botswana threatens to send 20,000 elephants to Germany

President Mokgweetsi Masisi offers to send the animals as a ‘gift’ to Berlin amid a dispute over hunting trophies.

Botswana’s president has threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany in a dispute over conservation.

Angered by proposals in Berlin to restrict the import of hunting trophies, President Mokgweetsi Masisi said in comments published on Wednesday that Germans should try living among elephants. He claimed that an explosion in the number of the mammals roaming his country has produced a “plague”.

Earlier this year, Germany, one of the largest importers of hunting trophies in the European Union, raised the possibility of stricter limits on imports due to poaching concerns.

Masisi told German daily Bild that hunting was an important means to keep elephant numbers in check, saying that Botswana was dealing with “overpopulation”.

The proposal put forward by the environment ministry, headed by Steffi Lemke of the Green party, met scorn from Botswana, which has seen its elephant population grow to some 130,000.