The government claims the herds can sustain the slaughter but Johannes Haasbroek, operations director of Elephant-Human Relations Aid, says the issue of the $40,000 dollar permits to big game hunters will be catastrophic.

Three of the licences have been issued in the south Kunene region, where Hassbroek says there are just three breeding bulls, and when all six trophies have been killed only 14 breeding bulls will remain.

Experts say this will cause the species to collapse and have called on tourists to boycott Namibia until the licenses are revoked, but it could be too late: five of the six targeted elephants are already dead.