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Fury After "Biggest Elephant In Africa In 50 Years" Is Reportedly Killed By Hunter

Months after the death of Cecil the lion, a huge elephant was apparently shot by a hunter who paid £39,000 for a permit.

Posted on October 16, 2015, at 6:02 a.m. ET

What kind of a man gets his kicks from shooting a magnificent animal like this?

Three months after the killing of Cecil the lion, a German hunter has reportedly shot one of the largest elephants ever seen in Zimbabwe.

The elephant had reportedly never been seen before in the country's southern Gonarezhou National Park.


The paper said that the hunt was refusing to name the man who had killed the elephant, but that he had "travelled to Zimbabwe to conduct a 21-day game hunt including the Big Five of elephants, leopards, lions, buffalo and rhinoceros."

As with Cecil's killing, there was an outcry on social media about the shooting of the elephant.

Biggest #Elephant killed in Africa for almost 30 years brings back memories of #CecilTheLion

Just seen on the news "hunters" killed the worlds largest elephant 😒. What is wrong with world... Disgusting

It's like paying $60,000 dollars to smash up some precious antiquity... #SaveTheElephants

The Daily Mail reported that the animal's tusks weighed 122lb and were so big that they dragged along the ground.

Johnny Rodrigues, chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, told the Mail: "The most disappointing thing is that when a local Zimbabwean kills an animal for food for his family, he is sentenced to between 5 and 15 years in prison but when a wealthy foreign hunter comes in and shoots an animal, he gets away with it. What message are we giving the people?"
