Arthur, you beat me to it, but I'll chime in anyways. Hunting is what has kept the elephant alive. If there were no clients willing to spend big $ to come and hunt, the poachers would have eliminated the elephant from the landscape long ago. The tourism $ mean something to to the governments in Africa, so they do their best to control the poaching, ensuring the continued survival of the species. Without the money the governments could give a crap, AND ELEPHANTS WOULD BE EXTINCT. And that would be despite the very best efforts of a very concerned band of professional hunters. Professional hunters who's fatherswere the grass roots founders of one of the very best DNR's the world has ever seen.

I have two full shelves of Africana in my bookcase from the explorations of Foa and Kittenburger through the modern days of Brian Herne. And if you have to ask why hunt the elephant, then no one can really tell you. But you might go to the library and check out a few books. When names like Bell, Sutherland, Hunter,and Taylor mean something to you then we can talk.

BTW, they fellows name I was looking for in my earlier post was James Sutherland. May have edged Bell out a bit in pure numbers, but I do believe Bell was the master.