South Africa Brings Back Elephant Killing
Tue, Feb 26, 2008
All across Africa conservation groups are working to preserve populations of threatened elephants from threats like ivory poachers.
An elephant in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. Image by Rob Hooft.
Recently, however, the South African government decided that the population in their country was sufficiently large to reinstate elephant culls.
The country banned elephant killing in 1995. Since then the population has grown from 8,000 to almost 20,000. Environment ministers say that this number of elephants is bad for both the exotic animals themselves and the South African environment as a whole. The country’s most famous game reserve, Kruger National Park, has 12,500 elephants, more than 5,000 above the sustainable total.
Culling will not be frequent and widespread. Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said: “Culling will only be allowed as a last option and under very strict conditions. Our simple reality is that elephant population density has risen so much in some southern African countries that there is concern about impacts on the landscape, the viability of other species, and the livelihoods and safety of people living within elephant ranges.”
South Africa is one of several southern African countries with booming elephant populations, mostly due to successful conservation efforts which seem a bit ironic at the moment. Their neighbour Botswana has an estimated 165,000 of the animals. With an average elephant requiring 660 pounds of food today, which they gather over a wide area, they are increasingly becoming an environmental problem and coming into contact with humans.
The announcement is a predictably emotional issue in the country, and it’s been strongly opposed by animal rights groups and local wildlife enthusiasts. Elephants have complex social groups, as well as complex brains. The animals can often only survive in a family unit, so the regulation said: “an elephant may not be culled if it is part of a family, unless the matriarch and juvenile bulls are culled as well.” Killing female elephants and juveniles is not a particularly popular move as you might expect.
Elephants are also very aware of the world around them. They have been shown to have complex thought processes, including self-awareness, and approach the intelligence of dolphins. Michelle Pickover of Animal Rights Africa said: “How much like us do elephants have to be before killing them becomes murder?”
That famous maxim about elephants never forgetting applies to culls as well. There were regular culls in South Africa between 1967 and 1994. That period also saw a significant change in the behavior of many elephants. Like elephants in regions where poaching is rampant, the animals actually showed signs of being traumatized by the killings and many became aggressive. With elephant populations already coming into frequent contact with humans, this could become a real problem.
The government has not said how many elephants will be killed in these culls. They have said that the current rumored number, about 7,000 of the animals, was vastly inflated.
Info from Telegraph, Guardian, and National Geographic
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February 26th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Well,what about people and booming stupidity ?? (dg)
March 1st, 2008 at 8:25 am
MEDIA RELEASE
February 27, 2008
Elephant contraception in KwaZulu-Natal’s Tembe Elephant Park
Contraception of female elephants in one South African game reserve began in June 2007, well ahead of the news this week that the government has put culling back on the table.
The birth control method, developed over 10 years, hopes to slow down elephant growth rate to prevent having to use culling to reduce numbers.
In 1995 pressure from the conservation and tourism lobby around the world forced the SA government to put a moratorium on culling in Kruger National Park.
But since then there has been growing concern in many South African game reserves that elephant populations are having a visible impact on the land, thereby threatening biodiversity.
Some scientists believe there are too many elephants, some don’t.
Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk has released the Norms and Standards on Elephant Management, drawn up after lengthy and wide scientific and public consultations.
This identifies culling as a last resort to reduce elephant numbers but recognises intense public emotions surrounding the issue.
Only when all other options like translocation, Transfrontier Conservation Areas and contraception have been exhausted will culling get the legal go-ahead.
Meanwhile contraception is being tested in KwaZulu-Natal’s Tembe Elephant Park, a 30 000 hectare (70,000 acre) game reserve on the KwaZulu-Natal Province , South Africa border with Mozambique. It contains rare sand forest habitat, home to the rare antelope species, the suni, and about 220 elephants.
These are the only indigenous elephant in the province and very large in size and have magnificent tusks. Many of the older bulls are estimated to weigh over 7000 kg ( 15400 lb ) and are considered to be the largest elephant in the world .They are part of the vast herds that once migrated between the two countries before South African conservation authorities fenced the border in 1989.
This was because some elephants were displaying visible wounds from the civil war in Mozambique.
So some elephants were confined to Tembe Elephant Park , where they have flourished, the others, about 350 now, in the Maputo Elephant Reserve in Mozambique.
Contraception was recently identified as a viable option to slow down the growth rate of elephants in Tembe. Henk Bertschinger, Emeritus Professor of wildlife reproduction in the Veterinary faculty of the University of Pretoria at Onderstepoort was involved.
He has done more than 10 years’ research in elephant contraception using a vaccine that inhibits sperm from entering the egg. It can be continued indefinitely with boosters but is reversible.
Currently 80 cows in Tembe have received boosters following last year’s initial vaccine. They are being closely monitored.
Another ongoing initiative is the proposed expansion of Tembe into southern Mozambique through the Futi Corridor to link with the Maputo Elephant Reserve. The neighbouring Tembe Tribe , after who the National Park is named , gave some of their lands to create Tembe Elephant Park in 1983 are also willing to put more land to the east and south-west of the park under conservation.
In addition, a portion of Tembe Elephant Park has been fenced off from elephants in order to preserve the sand forest - and the suni.
Says Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal’s resident ecologist Wayne Matthews: “The dream is to have more space for elephants. We are all trying to work on that. Contraception is a “holding pattern” before this. We very much hope we do not have to go the culling route before elephant habitat is expanded.”
Web Cam http://www.elecam.org
Web Site http://www.tembe.co.za
Transfrontier Parks http://www.peaceparks.org
Conservation Authority http://www.kznwildlife.com