A man who has been branded one of the world's most prolific trophy hunters has said the thousands of killings gave him a "great thrill".
Ron Thomson, from Zimbabwe, is believed to have killed 5,000 elephants and 60 lions during years of hunting.
On his website, he also boasts about killing 800 buffalo, 40 leopards and 50 hippos.
He also boasts online how "he has spent 25,000 hours in pursuit of African elephants, buffaloes and black rhinos".
Thomson began hunting as a teenager and stuck with the hobby throughout his whole life.
From 1959, he worked as a park ranger and was regularly called on to kill animals, reports the Sun .
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While he claims his work as a park ranger was a job and had nothing to do with "bloodlust", he also admitted to having done "enough in my lifetime to satisfy any bloodlust".
Thomson openly admits that during the killings, he had no "sentiment" and was "totally unrepentant".
He told The Independent : "I didn’t have any sentiment. I’m totally unrepentant, a hundred – ten thousand times over for any of the hunting I’ve done because that’s not the problem.”
Thomson even previously said the killings were "a great thrill to me, to be very honest".
He added: "Some people enjoy hunting just as much as other people abhor it. I happen to enjoy it."
The animal killer says as well as enjoying the hunt, he was also encouraged to keep slaughtering the creatures in order to help populations thrive - despite reportedly killing 5,000 elephants.
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Thomson said species would be driven to destroy their own habitats if they weren't culled.
On Monday, a new report revealed the impact of British hunters travelling to Africa to bring back ivory has had a devastating impact on the continent’s dwindling elephant populations.
British hunters have taken more than 1,089 elephant trophies and over a tonne of ivory back home for so-called sport, leading to the country Britain joining a league of shame called the “Deadly Dozen” - one 12 nations with the most trophy hunters slaughtering elephants.
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Eduardo Gonçalves, founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, said: “The trophy hunting industry is slaughtering elephants left, right and centre.
“Killing elephants for fun is unacceptable, even more so because of the seriousness of the current crisis.
“The recent surge in elephant hunting shows that the industry is out of control."
But Thomson has accused western conservationists of spreading “fraudulent lies” to extract money from the public while understanding nothing about managing wildlife.
