Botswana has the largest population of African elephants, with a ratio of one elephant for every 20 people (around 130,000). Botswanan president Mokgweetsi Masisi has stated that the large population of elephants is a national crisis; they are causing property damage, eating crops and trampling residents. One of the most efficient ways the population is controlled is via European trophy hunters, who pay high amounts which all go to the Botswanan government. However, African elephants are still listed as endangered, due to overhunting and ivory poaching practices.
In 2024, Germany has highly increased their import limits on foreign trophy hunting in the name of conservation. This has angered Masisi, who threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Berlin so that Germany can “live together with the animals, in the way you are trying to tell us to.”