A trophy hunter who reportedly paid $50,000 for the 'privilege' of killing the largest 'tusker' elephant in Botswana said he did not expect it to be controversial. Leon Kachelhoffer, who is from the African country, claims he killed the creature, which had 200lb of ivory, on the northern border close to Namibia.
The Mail reported that the elephant was in its early 50s. It was reportedly killed earlier this month with a single shot, a hunting industry spokesperson confirmed, after Kachelhoffer paid to join a hunt. The elephant was part of a small group of 40 animals with at least one tusk weighing 100lb remaining in Africa.
Kachelhoffer appeared on a podcast to speak about the experience. He told Blood Origins host Robbie Kroger that he did not imagine that the killing would be controversial.
He said: "That wasn't one of the things I was thinking about. To be in a position to hunt a bull like that, it's an incredible privilege.
"When you take a bull like that, there's a lot of remorse, there's a lot of sadness, you think about the great life that this elephant has led. You know, there's more to it than shooting a bull, taking a photograph, becoming a hero and all this other nonsense."
Botswana's former president Ian Khama, outlawed trophy hunting in the country. However, his successor Mokgweetsi Masisi brought it back in 2019.
Mr Kharma posted on Facebook: "This was one of the largest if not the largest tusker in the country. An elephant that tour operators constantly tried to show tourists as an iconic attraction. Now it is dead.
"How does it being dead benefit our declining tourism [industry]? Incompetence and poor leadership have almost wiped out the rhino population, and now this!"
There are around 130,000 elephants in Botswana, but only a small number are big tuskers. It has been reported that another elephant was also killed recently.
Elephant hunts raised $2.7million for the country's economy last year.
Hunting industry spokeswoman Debbie Peake said: "The income and meat from the hunt will make a huge difference to a community."
Peake also claimed that the elephant already had a bullet wound, meaning "the poachers had him in their sights". She added: "If it had been killed by a poacher there would have been no benefit to the local community."
