Botswana Elephant Auction: Jumbos Net Million

The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) on Wednesday raked in P1.1 million from the sale of 18 elephants.

The auction sale was performed in Gaborone by the Kgale Auctioneers on behalf of the DWNP. The elephants sold will be hunted at the CT4 and CT7 control hunting areas in the Central District and NG8, NG9 as well as NG35 in the Nhabe area.

Reserve price for each elephant was perked at P10 000, but the lowest elephants went on to fetch P40 000 while the most expensive ones were bought for P95 000.

Rann Hunting Safaris produced the highest bid, buying the package of four elephants from NG35 for P95 000 per elephant. The company was also successful in its bid for three elephants in CT7 hunting area, making seven the total number of elephants they bought.

Other companies that managed to bid successfully were Friends of South Sahara who bought four elephants in CT4, Tholo Safaris (four elephants at NG8) and Derrick Brink Holdings (three elephants at NG9).

Only Botswana registered companies were allowed to bid for the animals.

DWNP Director Mr Trevor Mmopelwa said they were elated by the outcome of the sale. He said the animals were from the quota of 25 elephants they were given for the 2010 hunting season.

He said in total 400 elephants were availed for hunting this year, but a significant number of them went to community trusts.

The quota was for animals from concession areas not allocated to any community trust. Every year we ask for a quota which is then endorsed by CITES (Convention of International Trade in Endangered Spices), he said.

The director said he was happy that many Batswana were showing interest in buying the elephants.

The head of CITES office in Botswana Mrs Diana Chimidza said they advertised the elephants for two weeks and 13 companies responded to the advertisements, saying ultimately 12 companies turned up for the auction.

It was a great response from companies and the enthusiasm that prevailed during the auction was just amazing. We were really excited by the outcome of the auction and to get P95 000 for the highest bid was just amazing, she said.

On why they decided to sell the elephants, she said they felt they have not been utilising their quota of elephants well. We felt it was time to generate more money using these elephants.

Mrs Chimidza said the elephants they had sold were trophy animals whose tusk weighed more than 11 kilograms.

She said the successful bidders will be free to hunt for the elephants from the day they acquire their hunting licenses until the end of November. BOPA