Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s joke may be humorous, but the German tabloid newspaper Bild reports that he is serious.
Masisi is offering Germany and the United Kingdom big animals from his country and said he won’t take no for an answer. The President, however, did not say how they will transport 10,000 wild elephants to the UK and twice that number to Germany.
The bizarre offer, or threat, was triggered by the two European nations’ ban on importing elephant trophies from Botswana.
“We are paying the price for preserving these animals for the world,” Masisi complained, according to Aol.com.
He said Botswana already provides 40 percent of its land for wildlife, and people are being trampled to death by elephants, whose population has tripled to 130,000 since the 1930s.
Masisi noted that trophy hunting also brings in much-needed revenue for conservation efforts and prevents the wildlife from venturing into farms and villages as the hunting scares them away.
While the British and German governments likely won’t accept Masisi’s offer, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin is not turned off by large animals, even coming face to face with one.
Srettha met an enormous white buffalo named Ko Muang Phet last month.
Renowned in Thai farming circles as a stud animal, the four-year-old albino from western Phetchaburi province stands 1.8 meters (6 feet) tall and weighs 1.4 tons — nearly three times the average water buffalo.
“I had no idea we had such beautiful buffalo,” Srettha told gathered reporters, gingerly patting one of the creature’s huge curved horns, Agence France-Presse reports.
The prime minister — no shorty himself at 1.92 meters tall — went nose-to-nose with the horned celebrity, which has been featured in a popular TV soap opera.
Their meeting created a spectacle as it happened inside Srettha’s offices in Government House.
The bulky bovine earned the trip to meet Srettha after its owner, Jintanat Limtongkul, bought it at an auction for $500,000.
