[fabsroman]

I saw it and they were hunting in Zimbabwe in a park that got most of its elephants from portions of Africa where the elephants had been heavily hunted by poachers. Because of the heavy hunting by poachers, these elephants in the Zimbabwe park were not keen towards humans (i.e., they did not like humans).

Both guys that took the initial shots on the elephant were professional hunters, it just so happened that one of them was able to afford the cost of the tag, all of which went back into managing the elephant herd according to the show. Further, the taking of the old bull was for management reasons (i.e., the herd was getting too big).

The first two shots were made while the professional hunters were standing up and while the elephant was charging full force (i.e., with no intent of stopping). One shot was fired from each professional hunter and both of them missed the brain. Several follow up shots were made to anchor and kill the animal.

What kills me is all the hype beforehand about having to hit the elephant in the brain to stop a full force charge or the hunter could die. Seems as though striking the elephant anywhere in the head is enough to stun him and allow for plenty of follow up shots. I don't think that elephant got off the ground once after the first shot was fired. I also didn't like the fact that everybody was firing on this elephant. Yeah, the hunter got the first shot in there, but what makes him think it is his trophy since it took about 4 guns to kill this elephant. If he wanted the trophy, he should have done all the shooting on his own. Then again, I am sure the rest of the group didn't want to die right then if he happened to miss.

As far as killing elephants is concerned, I take it that they are no longer endagered species. I could be wrong about this. Personally, I probably would never kill an elephant, just like I have no desire to kill a big cat, a wolf, or a giraffe. What I didn't like seeing at the end was the hunters carrying the ivory over their shoulders as a trophy. The ivory is the entire reason that the elephants experienced extreme poaching. Do we have to be reminded of this?