World News for Students of English

22-11-2017 15:00

The Trump administration lifted an Obama-era ban on the importing of body parts of elephants shot for sport in the southern African countries of Zimbabwe and Zambia.

According to the American wildlife authorities, trophy hunting can help raise money for conservation programmes. Critics of the ban lift, on the other hand, say that trophy hunting will only add to the decline in elephant numbers.

Biologist Shaye Wolf explained that poaching increases during times of upheaval. She said that Zimbabwe is in the midst of a political coup and there is no way for the government to effectively manage hunting right now, much less rein in poaching. She continued to add that elephants are magnificent, highly intelligent and social creatures.

Illegal poaching has killed over 140,000 savannah elephants in the last seven years.

Difficult words: lift (end), ban (prohibition; being illegal), upheaval (trouble, chaos), coup (rebellion, takeover of power), rein in (keep under control), magnificent (impressive, majestic, awesome).

You can watch the video news lower on this page.