2017
November
16
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

November 16, 2017
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Yvonne Zipp
Features Editor

Can you put a price on killing an endangered species?

The current rate for an African elephant: about $50,000 in fees.

The Trump administration announced hunters will be allowed to bring trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia to the United States – if there is evidence that the hunt benefits conservation efforts for that species. The move comes after the lifting last month of a similar ban on lion trophies – put in place after the outcry over the death of Cecil the lion in 2015. The US had banned imports of elephant trophies in 2014, given “calamitous population decline.”

Research on hunting’s benefits to conservation is mixed. A 2014 study found fees could help preserve a species (in that case white rhinos). A 2016 US House study countered that corruption often meant money didn’t reach conservation programs.

More than 10,200 African elephants were hunted for trophies between 2004 and 2014, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Some 71 percent of all hunting trophies went to the US.

Sport hunters point out that poachers kill far more elephants. Still, as China shuts down its ivory trade, and others take steps to protect the world’s largest land mammal, the value of some of Earth’s grandest creatures continues to demand deep consideration.

And now our five stories, designed to show you faith, community spirit, and a search for equality at work.


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post/AP
Danica Roem, a Democrat who ran for Virginia's House of Delegates against GOP incumbent Robert Marshall and won, cast her vote at Buckhall Volunteer Fire Department on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017, in Manassas, Va. She is the first openly transgender person elected and seated in a state legislature in the US.
Chris Wattie/Reuters
A man holds his head during a prayer at a vigil Oct. 3, 2017, for the victims of a mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival in Las Vegas.

The Monitor's View

AP Photo
Employees watch electronic boards monitoring possible cyberattacks at the Korea Internet and Security Agency in Seoul, South Korea.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Karel Prinsloo/AP/File
Elephants use their trunks to smell for possible danger in Kenya's Tsavo East National Park. The Trump administration is lifting a federal ban on the importation of trophies from African elephants killed for sport from Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Pachyderms on patrol

( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris and Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Today, Sen. Al Franken (D) of Minnesota became the latest politician to have sexual assault allegations leveled against him. Tomorrow, we'll have a story about efforts in both houses of Congress to overhaul their approach to sexual harassment. 

More issues

2017
November
16
Thursday
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