Buyers in Short Supply at Namibian Elephant Auction
- Government raises almost $409,000 from sale of 57 animals
- Most of southern African nation’s 24,000 elephants roam free
Elephants at Etosha park in Namibia
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Namibia sold just a third of the 170 elephants it put up for auction last December, with the animals proving too expensive for some potential buyers and others failing to meet the sale criteria.
The sale raised almost 6 million Namibian dollars ($409,000), Romeo Muyunda, an environment ministry spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday. The capture of the 57 elephants that were sold will begin this month and 42 of them will be exported from Namibia, while the other 15 will be relocated within the southeast African nation.