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Botswana Elephants Win a Reprieve as Virus Keeps Hunters at Home

  • Lifting of hunting ban last year caused conservation outcry
  • Country has the world’s largest population of elephants
An elephant at the Mashatu game reserve in Mapungubwe, Botswana.

An elephant at the Mashatu game reserve in Mapungubwe, Botswana.

Photographer: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

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Botswana’s controversial plan to resume elephant hunting has been largely thwarted by the global coronavirus pandemic, winning many of the 277 animals earmarked to be shot this year a reprieve.