According to the Zambian Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DPNW), the cull is a population control programme that entails the slaughter of up to 2,000 hippopotamuses from the Lower and Upper Luangwa Rivers at a rate of 400 per year for the next five years.

The four images which sparked global outrage have also been deleted from their primary source in the Facebook account of Kamisa Malipita, an employee of the Zambian Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DPNW), who posted them from the Luangwa River on May 31.

The culling programme is being carried out by South African professional hunter Theo De Marillac of De Marillac Safaris from Gravelotte in Limpopo province. On April 22, De Marillac posted an advert on his Facebook page inviting trophy hunters to take part in a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participating in the Zambian hippo hunt.

“For the Hippo hunt adventurer! Experience the rare once in a lifetime opportunity of participating in a controlled Hippo hunt in ZAMBIA’s Upper and Lower Luangwa. Please leave us your contact information for the full price-list,” De Marillac’s solicitation read. The programme began on May 22 but remained secretive until the images appeared on May 31.

Malipita is one of the DPNW game rangers helping De Marillac in the hunt. However, the German-based operators of the hippo whistle-blower blogspot told African News Agency (ANA) in an email on Thursday that the blog was pulled down by hackers on Wednesday night.

“The blog has been deleted, but to us that is more like closing the stable door after horses have long bolted. We consider this to be one of the reactions from the Zambian government. However, the hippo slaughter news has already gone around the world and we hope that instead of pulling down our blog and deleting the images, the Zambian government should start concentrating on how to stop their ‘great deal’ with the hunters,” the administrator said.

In a follow up, ANA also found that the images had also been removed from the primary source in the Facebook page of Kamisa Malipita. However, ANA still has the deleted images, including one which shows De Marillac standing over a hippo he shot as it dashed for the water in the Luangwa South river.

In two other images, Malipita captured several Zambians skinning a hippo while the third showed a huge pile of meat with a caption “hippo sausage”. A fourth image showed two severed, bloody hippo heads partially skinned in preparation for preservation as a trophy.

Efforts to get a comment from Zambian Tourism and Arts Minister Jean Kapata, De Marillac and the DPNW have proven fruitless.

--reuters--