A Texas hunting club is to once again auction off a chance to kill a large animal whose numbers are dwindling.

The Dallas Safari Club faced international criticism last year for auctioning a permit to shoot an endangered black rhino.

This year's auction prize is a 12-day hunt in Cameroon for African elephants.

The World Wildlife Fund, the world's leading conservation group, regards the animal as "vulnerable", a step below "endangered" and defined as "facing a high risk of extinction in the wild".

Animal welfare activists plan to picket the Dallas hotel where the auction is to take place.

But the club's executive director, Ben Carter, said elephants "are overpopulated in certain areas of Africa".

The rhino hunt has been postponed until the winner receives permission to import the carcass from Namibia.

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