Middle East & Africa | Protecting wildlife

Can shooting some elephants save many others?

Tanzania says yes, Kenya says no

Craig, the super-tusker elephant
Photograph: Alamy
|Amboseli National Park

The mighty elephant paws at the foot of an acacia tree, his tusks so long they graze the grass. Snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro shimmers in the distance. This is the kind of view that each year draws tens of thousands of visitors to Amboseli National Park in Kenya, on the southern border with Tanzania. Craig (pictured), the 51-year-old bull underneath the tree, may be the best-known elephant in the world.

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Shooting elephants”

From the September 28th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

A man inspects the damage at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted the Shayyah neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs on November 26, 2024

Israel and Hizbullah strike a fragile deal to end their war 

Joe Biden’s last roll of the dice on peace in the Middle East

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant hold a press conference in Tel Aviv

The arrest warrant is a diplomatic disaster for Netanyahu

But may also undermine the International Criminal Court


Food distributed to displaced Palestinians in Gaza

Israel’s hardliners reckon Gaza’s chaos shows they must control it

Only 11 out of a recent convoy of 109 aid trucks managed to get in


Why GM crops aren’t feeding Africa

Despite decades of research, few countries grow them there

A genocidal militia’s quest for legitimacy

A warring party in Sudan claims it wants to talk peace

Get ready for “Maximum Pressure 2.0” on Iran 

The Trump White House may bomb and penalise the regime into a deal