The Trump administration plans to allow a Michigan trophy hunter to import the body of a black rhino he paid $400,000 to kill in Namibia last year, conservation groups said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it will issue an import permit for the remains of the rare animal, which is protected under the Endangered Species Act, the Humane Society of the United States said last week. The law prohibits the import of trophies of endangered species unless doing so will "enhance the propagation or survival of the species."

“We urge our federal government to end this pay-to-slay scheme that delivers critically endangered rhino trophies to wealthy Americans while dealing a devastating blow to rhino conservation," said Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States and CEO of Humane Society International.

"With fewer than 2,000 black rhinos left in Namibia – and with rhino poaching on the rise – now is the time to ensure that every living black rhino remains safe in the wild," she said.

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Documents show Chris D. Peyerk applied for a permit to import the rhino's skin, skull and horns last year after paying an anti-poaching program to allow him to hunt the animal inside a Namibian national park, The Associated Press reported.

The black rhino is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which estimates that about 5,500 are left in the wild, nearly half of them in Namibia. Though the black rhino population has rebounded from the brink of extinction thanks to persistent conservation efforts, poaching and black-market trafficking of rhino horns remain a threat.

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In Namibia, five male black rhinos a year are legally permitted to be killed by hunters who pay for the right to do so.

“Legal, well-regulated hunting as part of a sound management program can benefit the conservation of certain species by providing incentives to local communities to conserve the species and by putting much-needed revenue back into conservation,” Laury Parramore, spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a statement.

As black rhino populations began to rebound, the Obama administration issued three permits beginning in 2013 to allow hunters to bring the remains of the animals to the United States. Two more have been issued under the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump’s two adult sons are avid trophy hunters, although Trump once called trophy hunting a "horror show" in a tweet.

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Contributing: The Associated Press

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