Can You Legally Hunt Elephants? Countries, CITES, and U.S. Rules

You can legally hunt elephants in a small number of African countries, but the answer only starts there. A hunt that is fully legal in Botswana or Zimbabwe can still land an American hunter in federal court if the trophy is imported without the right U.S. permits, and the tusks almost certainly cannot come home at all. The rules split into three layers: what the host country allows, what CITES requires for the trophy to cross a border, and what U.S. law permits you to import once it arrives.

Countries Where Elephant Hunting Is Legal

Legal elephant hunting is limited to a handful of African countries, and the list shifts as governments adjust their wildlife policies. The countries most commonly associated with regulated elephant trophy hunting are Botswana, Cameroon, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Each sets its own quotas, seasons, and permitting rules. A permit in one country gives you no rights in another.

Botswana banned trophy hunting in 2014, then reversed the ban in 2019, citing elephant overpopulation and damage to farmland. For 2025, the quota was set at 410 elephants, and a preliminary government draft raised it to 430 for 2026. Botswana alone hosts an estimated 130,000 elephants, the largest national population in Africa.

South Africa permits elephant hunting on both private and communal land. Only solitary males are generally eligible, and hunting near female-and-calf groups is prohibited. A registered professional hunter must supervise every hunt involving a foreign visitor.¹

Namibia’s general trophy hunting season runs from February 1 through November 30. Zimbabwe’s prime elephant hunting window falls between February and November, with permits issued through the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. Tanzania operates through the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA), which offers safari packages at 10-day, 14-day, and 21-day intervals; hunting companies apply for permits on the client’s behalf.²

What CITES Requires Before a Trophy Crosses a Border

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, does not ban elephant hunting. It controls the international movement of elephant specimens, including trophies, tusks, and any parts or products.³

Elephant populations in Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa sit on CITES Appendix II, which allows regulated international trade with proper export permits.⁴ Elephant populations everywhere else in Africa remain on Appendix I, where trade is allowed only in exceptional circumstances and never for commercial purposes.

For any trophy to leave the country legally, CITES requires an export permit issued by the host country. That permit can only be issued after the country’s scientific authority confirms the export will not harm the species’ survival.⁵ Commercial international trade in elephant ivory is prohibited under CITES entirely.⁶

What American Hunters Can and Can’t Bring Home

This is where American hunters most often get caught out. A legal hunt in Africa does not authorize import into the United States. The U.S. imposes its own layer of regulation, and it operates independently of whatever the host country allowed.

The Endangered Species Act

The African elephant has been listed as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act since 1978.⁷ Under a special rule at 50 CFR 17.40(e), sport-hunted trophies other than ivory can be imported only if the exporting country qualifies as “Category One” under the CITES National Legislation Project. That designation means the country has proper management and scientific authorities, prohibits trade that violates CITES, penalizes illegal trade, and confiscates illegally traded specimens.⁸ The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) must also make an enhancement finding: the import must actually enhance conservation of elephants in the wild and must not contribute to the species’ decline.

The Ivory Problem

Ivory is treated far more restrictively than the rest of the trophy. Regulatory changes finalized in 2016 effectively banned the commercial import and export of African elephant ivory. The rule at 50 CFR 17.40(e) prohibits most interstate and foreign commerce in ivory, with narrow exceptions for certain antiques and items containing very small amounts.⁹ In practical terms: even a hunter who takes an elephant legally in a country where ivory export is permitted generally cannot bring the tusks home to the United States. Non-ivory parts, such as a skull or hide, follow a somewhat less restrictive path but still require USFWS permits and an enhancement finding.

The Lacey Act

The Lacey Act is the trap. It makes it a federal crime to import, export, or traffic in wildlife taken in violation of any underlying law, whether foreign, federal, state, or tribal. If any permit in the chain was improperly issued, or a single regulation was violated during the hunt, the Lacey Act can convert an otherwise legal import into a felony. A knowing violation involving import or export carries fines up to $20,000 and up to five years in prison. A lesser violation, where the hunter should have known something was wrong, carries fines up to $10,000 and up to one year in prison.¹⁰ The government can also seize the trophy itself.

Rules That Apply During the Hunt

Foreign hunters are almost always required to hire a locally registered professional hunter who supervises the entire safari, ensures compliance with local law, and verifies that the correct animal is taken. Hunting from vehicles is widely prohibited. You can drive to the hunting area, but the shot itself must be taken on foot.

Caliber requirements vary. South Africa mandates a minimum of .375 H&H with bullets weighing at least 286 grains.¹ Other countries set the minimum at 9.3mm (roughly .366 caliber), and some have no formal caliber rule at all. Using an undersized cartridge where a minimum applies can void your permit.

Every country that allows elephant hunting also defines what is forbidden:

Hunting from vehicles. Vehicles can transport you to the area but cannot serve as shooting platforms.
Targeting protected animals. Most countries restrict harvest to mature males, and South Africa prohibits hunting any elephant near a female-and-calf group.¹
Driving or baiting. Methods that stampede elephants toward hunters or lure them with food or water are banned. South Africa also prohibits hunting within 500 meters of a waterhole.
Exceeding quotas or hunting outside designated areas. Either turns a legal hunt into poaching.

Costs and Getting the Trophy Home

Elephant hunts are expensive. Daily rates for dangerous-game safaris typically run $700 to $1,500 or more, and elephant trophy fees add tens of thousands of dollars. A full hunt, including safari fees, trophy fees, taxidermy, and export logistics, can easily exceed $40,000 to $70,000. Export permits, CITES documentation, veterinary inspections, and freight add more on top.

Shipping is where a lot of hunters get stuck. Most major international carriers now refuse hunting trophies. American Airlines, Air France, Air Canada, and AeroMéxico are among the airlines that explicitly prohibit carrying elephant trophies in cargo or checked baggage. The bans typically cover elephants, lions, rhinoceroses, leopards, and buffalo. Hunters who assume they can check a crate at the airport find out otherwise at the counter.

The workaround is a specialized freight forwarder that handles wildlife shipments and manages the documentation chain: CITES export permits, veterinary health certificates, customs declarations, and USFWS import permits for U.S.-bound shipments. The process routinely takes weeks to months, and freight adds thousands of dollars. And under the Lacey Act, importing wildlife without the required permits is itself a criminal offense, separate from whether the underlying hunt was legal.¹⁰

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

Host-country penalties have escalated sharply. Namibia raised its maximum penalty for illegal elephant hunting to a fine of N$25 million (roughly $1.5 million at current exchange rates) and up to 25 years in prison. In the Republic of Congo, courts have sentenced elephant poachers to five years in prison with fines of $10,000 each. These are not theoretical maximums. Convictions happen, and countries under international pressure are prosecuting more aggressively than in the past.

On the U.S. side, the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act operate together. A hunter who takes an elephant legally but imports the trophy without the required USFWS permits, or whose host-country paperwork turns out to have a defect, can face federal criminal charges, forfeiture of the trophy, and both civil and criminal penalties. The bottom line for anyone weighing an elephant hunt: the shot is the easy part. Every step before and after it is a legal transaction that has to hold up in two different countries’ courts.

1
South Africa Government. National Norms and Standards for Management of Elephants in South Africa
2
Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority. Hunting Tourism
3
CITES. Text of the Convention – Article II Fundamental Principles
4
CITES. CoP19 Proposal for Amendment of Appendix I or II
5
CITES. Resolution Conf. 17.9 – Trade in Hunting Trophies of Species Listed in Appendix I or II
6
CITES. Current Rules on Commercial International Trade in Elephant Ivory Under CITES
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U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Listing of the African Elephant as a Threatened Species
8
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 4(d) Rule for African Elephants
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eCFR. 50 CFR 17.40 – Mammals
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 16 Section 3373 – Penalties and Sanctions