Well unless I am mistaken one of the few places where cow elephants can be hunted is Zimbabwe. And they have an excess of elephant anyway from most reports.

Cow elephant hunting is banned in Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and Tanzania isn't it?

But my real question is this. If it is so bad for a herd of elephant to shoot a cow, why isn't it EQUALLY as bad to shoot a bull???? Surely if elephants have these unique memories, pysches or whatever, a shot bull would have as much a detrimental effect on nearby elephants as a cow?

Perhaps by this logic ALL elephants should be culled by professional shooters and then a lot of outfitters would find themselves out of business!

I think a lot of this might be the attaching of human emotions to elephants but it is interesting and worth catching up on some reading about it.