Woman kills elephant with bow and arrow

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This woman has made herself quite unpopular on internet comments threads for killing an elephant for a bet. I’m not sure if I should feel sorry for the magnificent beast left overnight to die or if I should congratulate Ms Groenewald-Hagerman for setting herself a goal and achieving it or. But most of all I can’t help wondering what she’d be like in an arm wrestle.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildli ... arrow.html

Woman hunter kills elephant with bow and arrow
Female hunter Teressa Groenewald-Hagerman has become the first woman in the world to shoot an elephant dead with a bow and arrow.
Last Updated: 7:42AM BST 07 May 2009

Groenewald-Hagerman, 39, she sneaked into the animals herd and killed the creature with one shot from just 12 yards.

The woman, from Kansas, was inspired to go on the safari after being challenged by a male friend who said women could never draw such a heavy bow.

She worked out for four hours a day for eight months to be able to draw the huge PSE XF Bow big enough to kill the majestic creature.

The huntswoman wrote her own blog about her trip to Zimbabwe where she found the elephant in 2007.

She describes leaving the animal overnight lying on its side before returning to check it was actually dead the next day.

On the hunting website 'Hunts of a Lifetime' Hagerman wrote: "A man by the name of Larry, who is a videographer for Orion Multi Media, bet me I couldn't shoot a buffalo or elephant with a bow.

"He indicated only one or two women had completed the buffalo with a bow and no woman had ever taken an elephant with a bow. Of course, I couldn't turn down the challenge."

I'm surprised one shot from a bow could kill an elephant unless it was right through the eye.

The way a modern arrow fired by a high power bow kills is by cutting a great big clean hole through the heart and lungs causing the victim to bleed out. She would have gone for the lung shot.

Death is through blood loss rather than the direct trauma of the shot (unlike a bullet). Sometimes an animal shot with a bow will not even notice they have been shot if the arrow does not hit bone and just passes right through. However, there is usually some sort of startle effect causing the animal to run.

that's F**ed up... elephants are an endangered species and she should be in jail.

Well, actually its the elephants' HABITAT that is endangered.
Here in Southern Africa we actually have more elephants than we have room for. We have successfully protected them from poachers and they are breeding faster than they are dying.

The forest elephant is highly endangered though, but that is not the kind that she has shot.

There might be a lot of other reasons to have a problems with this, but that is not one of them...

elephants are on the endangered species list and are legally protected from hunting

Yes, but not relevant in this case. You will note that this took place in Zimbabwe.

They are listed in Appendix 1 (red list) globally, but the populations in Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia were downlisted to appendix II in 1997. This means that limited trade is allowed with appropriate permits.

interesting.

I agree with Alex, that this is f**ked up, but at the same time, Robert Mugabe has taken what was essentially a fairly prosperous nation and turned it into a third world sh*thole during the length of his regime, so it's really not surprising that you can hunt elephants there legally, as Zimbabwe is destitute and hard up for any influx of cash.

Wikipedia Article on Zimbabwe
Wikipedia Article on Robert Mugabe

Now that's some incredible talent.

Wow, it's like someone training to become a blackbelt so they can kick puppies. Way to apply that talent and skill!

"The woman, from Kansas, was inspired to go on the safari after being challenged by a male friend who said women could never draw such a heavy bow. "

If all she had to do was shoot the bow, why not ..... just aim for a target dummy? <.< or heck, even a tree? ><

Good analogy. Except that, y'know, puppies are cute but fairly stupid while elephants *seem* near sentient. The concept of hunting them is particularly repugnant.

With enough money these days, nothing's taboo.

Well, we live in a society that kills unborn babies because they MIGHT turn out to be inconvenient.
Everything else becomes pretty easy after that...

I wouldn't say that. A lot of people who have abortions have them out of desparation due to the fact that they could not cope with having a child financially, emotionally, or perhaps both. Sure there is adoption, however many of the people who adopt are fanatically religious, which if I was a pregnant girl, I wouldn't want my potential child to endure. -- Either way, it's not something to celebrate.

OTOH, this lady has no qualms about getting close enough to an elephant and killing it for sport. Big differance between this and having an abortion.