Charles,

You might not be aware but Australia does not permit the import of any elephant products - skin, tusks etc, so the fact that "paradox" did not seek to ascertain whether the intended cow's tusks were exportable from Zimbabwe or not is moot as he could not import them into Australia.

If I ever am lucky enough to hunt a ele bull with exportable tusks I would look for a friend to take delivery of them for me.

As for hunting cow permits vs tuskless permits, last year I bought at an SCI auction a hunt for "tuskless cow elephant" and on arriving found out the permits were actually for cow elephants ie tusked or not. So it worked in my favour that time, no complaints. The local council in Omay actually wanted tusked cows to be shot, as they can earn something by selling the ivory even if tiny and there was a small amount of pressure to shoot tusked cows. I preferred tuskless as I think they should be shot out leaving the others to breed.

By chance I took two tuskless cows anyway.