Elephants Can’t Vote, But They May Decide Botswana’s Election

Proceedings had barely begun at a recent summit in Kasane, Botswana, to discuss its huge elephant population, when a man returning home from an evening out with friends encountered a herd and was trampled to death. His grieving father told a local paper he now hates the animals that gather in the northeastern corner of the country. “I used to like elephants,” he said, but “they did a cruel thing to me.”

For Botswana, elephants are becoming a dilemma. The government wants to lift a ban on hunting wildlife because the pachyderms are destroying crops and occasionally killing people, arguing that while the nation’s savannas may be popular with wealthy foreigners who pay $355 a night for a luxury lodge, trophy hunting would bring in more revenue. An elephant hunt in neighboring countries costs about $45,000.