HUNTERS BANNED AFTER RESEARCH ELEPHANT KILLED

Botswana’s government has revoked the licences of two professional hunters who shot dead a research elephant and then destroyed its collar to try to hide the evidence.

In a statement late on Saturday, the environment and tourism ministry said that professional hunters Michael Lee Potter and Kevin Sharp had surrendered their licences after shooting the elephant at the end of November. Their nationalities could not be immediately established. Potter was banned for an indefinite period and Sharp for three years. Neither hunter was available for comment.

The shooting recalled the killing of “Cecil the lion” by an American hunter in neighbouring Zimbabwe in 2015, also an animal that had a research collar and was supposed to be protected.