7 July 2009
Maputo — The Mozambican police have arrested two professional hunters, both European nationals, for killing an elephant belonging to the Gorongosa National Park (PNG), in the central province of Sofala.
According to the PNG Communication Department, the two are Victor Ildefonso Anselmo, of Portuguese nationality, linked to the company "Ideal Safaris", and a Frenchman, Julien Raymond. They were arrested on 25 June, and charged with killing a protected species, hunting during the closed season. the illegal possession of firearms, and theft of an electronic tracking collar belonging to the PNG.
The stolen collar identified the elephant, known to the PNG as "G4". This animal moved frequently between the national park and the Zambezi river, passing through hunting areas on its route. The PNG believes the elephant was killed on 18 or 19 June near Chiramba, in Chemba district.
Elephants are protected in Mozambique. The movements of the PNG's few elephants are monitored by the satellite signals issued by their collars. The PNG says that local officials and communities were perfectly aware of the animal's movements.
It seems that the two poachers did not realize that the collar was still issuing a strong signal. It was this that allowed the police to track them down and arrest them.
The PNG conservation department noted something was wrong on 12 June, when "G4" slowed down. It was suspected that the animal was injured. By 19 June the signal stopped moving at all. But on 20 June, the satellite showed that the collar was moving to a house in Beira, hundreds of kilometres from the last known position of the elephant.
On 25 June, members of the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC), accompanied by PNG staff, were able to use the signal to track the stolen collar, and the poachers, down to a specific house in the Beira neighbourhood of Palmeiras.
In the house, the police found, in addition to the stolen collar, six guns of various types, a large amount of ammunition, five elephant tusks, including those of "G4", elephant feet, and various buffalo trophies, none of which had any documentation indicated that the animals had been legally hunted.
One of the tusks was 3.7 metres long and weighed 55 kilos. Such a large tusk is regarded as national heritage, and cannot be exported.
"G4" is one of a group of six bull elephants imported from South Africa's Kruger National Park last year to restock the PNG, which lost all its elephants during the war of destabilisation. The PNG administration puts the damage done by the two poachers at 50,000 US dollars - the costs of capturing the elephant and transporting it to Mozambique, and of acquiring the satellite tracking equipment.
The Director of the PNG Conservation Department, Carlos Lopes Pereira, declared "this case shows that poaching is going on, involving unscrupulous individuals capable of killing whatever appears in front of them for easy profit".
The PNG has thanked the police for their speedy and effective cooperation in tracking down the poachers. Now the park is waiting to see what attitude the authorities responsible for licensing professional hunters will take.
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These killers who slaughter elephants for sport should be put away until they are too old and feeble to ever use a weapon again. They should also be fined, in order to cover ALL costs multiple times.