Big-game hunters in Texas have auctioned a permit to hunt the endangered black rhino in the name of conservation.
Dallas Safari Club raised $350,000 from the weekend auction, which they claimed would fund "anti-poaching patrols, habitat protection, research and other measures crucial for protecting populations of endangered black rhinos in Namibia".
Several TV and film personalities protested the controversial auction.
Namibia has held six such rhino permit auctions, but the one in Dallas was the first held overseas.
Club officials said Namibian wildlife officials will accompany the hunter in Mangetti National Park "to ensure the correct type of animal is taken", and "if the hunt is successful, meat from the animal will feed a nearby community".
Fewer than 5,000 black rhino survived in Africa, fewer than 2,000 in Namibia, down from 70,000 worldwide in the 1960s.
Meanwhile, Tanzania’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism has suspended 21 wildlife department staff allegedly linked to elephant poaching.
According to a local report, members of the ministry’s staff were directly involved in wildlife sabotage and collaborated with poachers.
