A super tusker elephant has reportedly been trophy hunted in the Maswa Game Reserve of Tanzania, which shares an unfenced boundary with Serengeti National Park. Unconfirmed reports from the ground are rife that the elephant may be popular cross-border elephant known by local tourism lodge owners as Zito.
Updated 1 November 2024: One contact on the ground suggests that the tusk weight of the hunted elephant allegedly weighed in at 132 and 127 pounds. This source also suggests the elephant hunted is possibly not Zito. “There is a lot of jumping to conclusions here and a lot pointing to Zito. But I am hearing from a good source that it’s not Zito.”
Super tusker elephants have at least one tusk weighing over 100 pounds/45kg. Zito is an elephant known to roam Tanzania’s Serengeti ecosystem, Grumeti Game Reserve (on the northwest border of Serengeti National Park), and Maswa Game Reserve (south of Serengeti’s western corridor), and was formerly observed in Siana Conservancy in Kenya. Zito is a cross-border elephant and one of the last super tuskers to roam Tanzania’s greater Serengeti ecosystem.
Africa Geographic is seeking more information about this hunt, including photos of the dead elephant. As usual, all informant identities will be treated with the strictest confidentiality. Anyone with more information on this trophy hunt is urged to send more details to editors@africageographic.com. Likewise, if you have any photo evidence of Zito alive after September 2024, please share this information and pics.
Zito was first recorded on the Elephant Voices Mara Elephant Database around 2012 as “M190” after being seen in the Siana Conservancy, east of Maasai Mara National Reserve, in Kenya.
Gini Cowell, Field Operations Manager at the Elephant Aware conservation project (based in Siana, in the Mara ecosystem), observed this elephant for some time between 2009 and 2011 in Kenya. “Even all those years ago I remember him being very magnificent with his long, splayed tusks,” says Cowell.
“On one occasion, I remember this particular male walked calmly towards our vehicle, and he stopped to observe us while casually munching on an acacia tree branch. We noticed that he had a relatively large wound on his right rump region, which did not appear very deep or life-threatening, but he would swat at it with his tail to keep flies away. It still didn’t affect his disposition. He was clearly at ease and completely undisturbed by our presence. I strongly recall how he was so huge, majestic and yet so gentle towards us.”
Zito is likely between 50 and 60 years old. Observers have estimated Zito’s tusks to weigh between 100 and 110 pounds. He was last spotted in Grumeti in July 2024. Reports of a Maswa super tusker hunt first started doing the rounds in early October.
A video of Zito currently doing the rounds on social media. Source: Unknown (please contact us if this is your video)
A scan of trophy hunting forums reveals that Maswa was historically a popular hunting ground for super tuskers but that these elephants have now been mostly shot out.
The elephant recently hunted in Maswa was allegedly trophy hunted by a well-known professional hunter, previously linked to the hunting of the largest super tusker hunted in Botswana since 1996.
Zito is so named for the size of his tusks – Zito means “weight” in Swahili. Zito has been referred to as “gentle and unassuming” and “incredibly relaxed” in the presence of humans.
“There is a mutual, informal agreement among stakeholders and hunters in the region that this elephant is off-limits for hunting,” says one prominent property owner in the Serengeti area.
The cross-border elephants of Tanzania and Kenya have been in the spotlight since Africa Geographic broke the news that two known super tuskers of the Amboseli ecosystem were hunted in Tanzania, near the Kenya border.
Soon after the death of these two super tuskers, another three large tuskers were hunted in Tanzania near the border, despite various calls by conservationists, scientists and the public to halt hunting in this area, frequented by Amboseli’s important elephant population. This brought the total to five large-tusked elephants hunted along the border in just eight months.
While Zito does not belong to the unique Amboseli elephant population, he has often been spotted along the border between the Serengeti and Kenya.
Super tuskers are increasingly rare, with an estimated 50 to 100 of these 100-pounders remaining in Africa. The targeting of super tuskers like Zito is a trend that threatens the future of this genetically distinct elephant population.
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