The Friedkin Conservation Fund says in a statement that Roger Gower was shot on Friday while flying on a joint operation with Tanzanian wildlife authorities who were trying to track and arrest the poachers.
The Texas-based group, which oversees a number of wildlife areas in Tanzania, says Gower's death highlights the "appalling risk" of protecting wildlife in a country whose elephant population has been slaughtered in large numbers.
Lazaro Nyalandu, a former Tanzanian minister of tourism and natural resources, wrote on Twitter that Gower managed to land the helicopter despite his fatal wound. He says the shooting happened in Maswa wildlife reserve, near Serengeti park.