All elephant hunting expeditions will be compelled to be accompanied by a guide and a professional, at all times, according to the auction notice. Masisi's decision to lift the hunting ban last year was highly praised by local communities but derided by conservationists and ignited tension between Khama and Masisi. He has defended his decision to end the hunting ban saying Botswana has an overpopulation of elephants, and pledged to regulate the practice. His predecessor Khama was bitter. "I have been against hunting because it represents a mentality (of) those who support it, to exploit nature for self interest that has brought about the extinction of many species worldwide," he told AFP in a phone interview. He said allowing commercial hunting could "demotivate those who are engaged in anti poaching, who are being told to save elephants from poachers but the regime is poaching the same elephant and calling it hunting".

Audrey Delsink, Africa's wildlife director for the global conservation lobby charity Humane Society International said "the Botswanan elephant hunting auctions are deeply concerning and questionable". "Hunting is not an effective long-term human-elephant mitigation tool or population control method," she said from neighbouring South Africa. Neil Fitt, who heads Kalahari Conservation Society in Botswana, said hunting was a new source of revenue for the country, but cautioned it had to be practised "ethically and properly". With unfenced parks and wide-open spaces, Botswana has the world's largest elephant population with more than 135,000 animals -- about a third of the African continent's total. Most of the animals are in the Chobe National Park, an important tourist draw. But elephants invade villages located near wildlife reserves, knocking down fences, destroying crops, and at times killing people.

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