WASHINGTON— Conservation groups and scientists filed a petition with the United States government today to stop U.S. hunters from importing elephant trophies from the famed cross-border Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro elephant population inhabiting Kenya and Tanzania. For 30 years this longest-studied elephant population was safe from trophy hunters but now some of the world’s most iconic male elephants are at risk of being killed in the Tanzanian portion of their range if trophy hunting is allowed to continue.

Today’s petition to the Interior Department and the Fish and Wildlife Service seeks a permanent rule banning U.S. trophy imports from the Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro elephant population. The petition was filed by Amboseli Trust for Elephants, ElephantVoices and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Over the past nine months, five mature males have been killed by trophy hunters. At least two of them qualify as “super-tuskers,” with one or more tusks weighing 100 pounds. Among the five killed, only one has been identified — an elephant named Gilgil. In an unprecedented practice, all the carcasses were burned and some were also buried, presumably to prevent identification of the animals.