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With barely a grunt, the powerful elephant yanked the trunk of the decades-old mopane tree out of the reddened earth of the South African bush. The party may soon be over, however.
Yesterday, in a move that will anger armchair conservationists worldwide, South Africa said that it would reintroduce culling for the first time since 1994 to control elephant numbers, which environmentalists say are threatening the country’s game reserves.
Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, announced the policy reversal after a year-long review. He declined to be drawn on how many elephants might be killed, saying only that figures of between 2,000 to 10,000 claimed by animal rights groups were “hugely inflated”. He emphasised that the measure would be a final resort.
“Culling will only be allowed as a last option and under very strict conditions,” he told reporters in the state capital, Pretoria.
Since killing elephants was outlawed 14 years ago, the number in South Africa has soared from about 8,000 to more than 20,000. In the Kruger National Park, signs of the continent’s most privileged elephant population are only too visible. As they move through one of Africa’s biggest and best-managed reserves, the country’s highest single population of elephants — now estimated at 15,000 — leave a swath of destruction. Trampled thorn trees, bushes and dying roots, dried brittle by the sun, mark their route across a reserve visited by more than one million tourists a year.
Research in the 1990s found that the ideal “sustainable” elephant population for the Kruger would be 7,500. One elephant alone eats an estimated 375lb (170kg) of grass, tree bark and leaves every day.
Richard Leakey, chairman of Wildlife Direct and the man who led the worldwide campaign against the ivory trade in the 1980s, said of the cull: “It is a terrible thing to have to do this to such an intelligent species, but we have to find a solution to the numbers problem. I hope it will be a once-off and then we can keep the population in check with other measures.”
Animal rights defenders threatened to call for tourist boycotts and to mount other protests. Animal Rights Africa (ARA), one of the most radical opponents, said that it would organise public protests and legal action if the Government did not drop culling as an option.
The group favours measures such as elephant “contraception” and hugely expensive relocation. There are no quick fixes. A female normally breeds every four years, but with contraception, she comes on heat every four months, though does not conceive. This exposes her to the physical stress of frequent copulation with bulls, which can be four times her weight.
The rights group said in a statement: “We appeal to the international animal rights community to use its not inconsiderable membership and corporate influence to support a call for tourists to boycott our national parks should elephant culling be retained as a management option.”
Wildlife experts in southern Africa which, unlike East Africa, has an abundance of elephants, said that the argument against slaughter was ludicrous. Thorn trees are favourite fodder for elephants, but eagles and vultures also like to nest in them and giraffes like to browse from above.
“I am in the business of conservation of all species, even plant life, not just elephants,” one game warden told The Times recently. “An over-population of elephants spells doom for other species.”
Ian Whyte, the chief elephant researcher in the Kruger, has written that without culling the reserve would change — and not for the better. If the population continues to grow it will turn a woodland into a grassland and other species will die. “In any protected area that has elephants you have two choices: you utilise the area to maintain biodiversity or else you have an elephant sanctuary,” he said. “You can’t have both.”
Tusk force
— An adult elephant needs up to 375lb (170kg) of vegetation every day and can drink up to 90 litres (160 pints) of water
— Elephants can live for 70 years or more and breed until the age of 50. Their young gestate for 22 months, the longest of any land animal, and weigh up to 265lb at birth
— The African elephant population had halved in the decade before the 1989 ban on the ivory trade, almost entirely because of ivory poaching
— Helicopters are used to herd and shoot the animals during a cull. Rifles were used for this once but have been replaced by dart guns loaded with a powerful muscle relaxant
Sources: SANParks; CITES; WWF; IFAW
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The cull is the only option. We must choose the entire ecosystem over one species. Humans have tried to balanced out their mistakes without killing in the past. We just make it worse. Unfortunatly, we must kill, murder, whatever you want to call it, some of these intelligent creatures to rectify our mistakes. It's cruel, but unless some one can donate enough money and land to relocate the elephants or find another cheap alternative, we must cull.
NT- A boycott of South Africa? Wonderful. I hope South Africa can start a boycott of ignorant, uninformed morons. The elephants are in enclosed areas. We are already playing God by fencing them in, not providing them with enough space, food, water, you name it. If we are to step back and let "nature" run its' course, feel free to visit South Africa anytime and watch as our ecosystems collapse and the elephant population reaches breaking point, leading to their extinction.
Alice, Cape Town, South Africa
I think we should cut down on MEN. They are the biggest threat the the universe than any Animal.
Ragefull, london,
Why can't they be relocated with energy and resources directed at transitioning them into their new environment so survival is possible? There is not enough food where they are currently living, so why not move them, while incorporating contraceptive methods? Concerning the quotes below: Where can I find research that shows what you say is true about contraception?
The second quote to me is pessimistic. There needs to be some creativity shown here.
"Contraception: doesn't work. The bulls would require intrusive surgery that would probably kill them and the cows require drug treatment every few months. - It also affects their mood and makes them dangerous.
Elephant society is very complex and many experts have studied the problem. Culling (sadly) is the only realistic option."
Angela Bridgewater, Terre Haute, Indiana
I'm sorry NT, but as a Canadian, perhaps you should look a little closer at your own country's actions - like the wholesale hunting of harp seal cubs, which has been going on for years and years. Gee - killing baby seals. That sounds like a good reason for other countries to boycott Canada to me... but perhaps you would disagree?
Alison, Cape Town,
South Africa has the most successful wildlife management strategy in Africa and possibly one of the best in the world. The culling of the elephants is, unfortunately, necessary. It must be remembered that the self same wardens/game keepers who were involved in seeing many of these elephant grow into beautiful adult animals will take part in the cull. To them it will be almost murder, but for the greater good of entire species of many animals it has to be done and being proffesionals they realise this.
Graham, East London, South Africa
Wow, I'm really impressed with the thought process of some of these "animal rights defenders" - lets punish SA for being too successful at protecting and managing their wildlife by holding a tourist boycott - really clever people, and probably the same people who first proposed using biofuels to reduce carbon emissions & are now leading to the fastest deforestation that Brazil & Indonesia have seen as land is cleared for farming.
The problem with a lot of these do gooders is that they jump on a cause without doing the hard work which is required to really save the environment. Wake-up people and read your history books - Tsavo in Kenya wsa destroyed by similar nonsense in the 80's & 90's due to a massive increase in the elephant population and ultimately led to the deaths or animals than ever imagined (including lots of elephants who starved to death!!).
Brn, London, UK
I am opposed to the reversal of Pretoria's 14-year-old moratorium on slaughtering the iconic pachyderm for the following reasons: (1) Although elephants may be relatively numerous in South Africa's Kruger National Park, the African sub-species overall is still imperilled on the continent and increasingly endangered by ivory-exploiting poachers and corrupt , complicit rangers; (2) the high degree of social cohesion of elephants places the elephant on a far loftier plane than livestock; (3) the individuality of these intelligent creatures is astounding to zoologists, fanciers and the general public; and (4) if one applies a balancing test, the interest in preserving elephants, individually, as members of a herd, and as examples of a precious species, is more compelling than the "gains" of managing a park, which is designed for the convenience of governmental ministers. The goodwill gained by the government exceeds this little final solution.
Maurice Kane, SAN DIMAS, CA, USA
A very real option for the elephants is to expand the habitat.
Around Kruger the old elephant migratory routes still extend.
The elephants remember this. Please join me in motivating
for small corridors of land to be acquired or rented from communities,so that the herds can move from one conservation area to another,expanding their habitat.
The owners of land in corridors could benefit from tourism,and with just a few corridors, the elephants could
move into areas doubling or tripling their habitat.
This seems to be a much more caring and practical approach than just killing them.
Adjacent areas that could be re-populated include hundreds of thousands of hectares of game farm land along the Limpopo, leading to other reserves such as Mapungubwe and Tuli Block, and then on up the Shashe to eastern Botswana. Banhine reserve in Mozambique, and Mlawula in Swaziland, as well as the rest of the 'mirror image' Kruger Park
area in Mozambique. This represents millions of hectares.
Robert Waldron, Henley On Klip, South Africa
Why not have the animals taken to other countries where there is a decline. Makes more sence and it may cost money, but if we can put a number of wanna be celebs in a jungle im sure we can put some elephants.
B White, Nottingham,
I am personally against the culling of these good and inteligent
animals as are the elephants.The human beings are more
dangerous and the South African authorities should think for
another solution.
Solon Lechonitis, Athens, Greece
If we don't do something soon about the human population all animals except pets are doomed to die by human hands. I for one do not want to live in a world without wild animals.
Angela Williams, Bexhill, England
Christine,
There are no other ways to control the numbers. They've all been tried and all have failed. A quick summary of options and reasons why they won't work are:-
Translocations: - don't work because the animals either want to return, are poached or overpopulate the new area very quickly and create a new overpopulation problem in an area that is smaller than the original area. - hence a bigger problem than the original one.
Contraception: doesn't work. The bulls would require intrusive surgery that would probably kill them and the cows require drug treatment every few months. - It also affects their mood and makes them dangerous.
Elephant society is very complex and many experts have studied the problem. Culling (sadly) is the only realistic option.
steve, White River, South Africa
I think it is wrong and they are too quick to KILL them. Yes the population numbers are getting high but there has to be another option other an slaughtering between 2,000 and 10,000 elephants. Why can't they open a dialogue with other countries and animal rights organizations and come up with some alternatives to relocate many of them. There has to be another way.
The human population is getting too big also are we going to cull them too?
Christine, concord, United States
Before anyone has anything negative to say about the culling of elephants in South Africa, I urge them to actually visit the Kruger National Park. The huge populations of elephants there have completely wrecked the countryside, putting the livelihood of other species at serious risk. The amount of destruction that one elephant can cause is imaginable. As much as we all love elephants, the responsible thing to do is to cull them before its too late.
Jamie, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
I live 20 minutes drive away from the Kruger National Park and am a very frequent visitor. The ever continuing elephant damage in the park simply has to be seen to be believed. As the bush is destroyed, so is the habitat of all of the smaller species from duikers to birds to all the large antelopes etc.
If the park is to be prevented from turning into a sterile desert that is completely devoid of life, this cull simply MUST happen, and the sooner the better. The longer it's postponed, the higher the number of elephants will eventually have to be killed.
It's very sad that such an impressive, wonderful species needs to be culled, but it is the only solution. If it doesn't happen, not only will all the other animals die out, but so will all the elephants.
Anyone arguing against the cull, is doing so from a position of ignorance, blindness and anthropomophasism..
steve, White River, South Africa
I think this is a great idea. My hopes are that they make elephant meat from the culling available to us here in the US!
LS, Clearwater,
I have seen thye damage, squalor and misery that overpopulation in humans can do too, but we look for other solutions to solve the problem.
Yes, animals may be inferior to humans in some ways - though I do prefer animals to many people - but there comes a time when we have to consider other life forms and not do everything in our own interests only.
To bring it a bit wider, it seems when we talk of preservation, saving the planet and such like, what we are really talking about is saving humans. Maybe the world would be a better place and more naturally maintained if we did disappear in the near future.
Stuart Murray, Amsterdam, Netherlands
If it is necessary to cull an over-populated species, then isn't it about time we considered culling humans?
The human race is a population out of control, worse than any in the animal kingdom. There are more humans than rats.
Guy Sanftleben, London, UK
NT Toronto: don't boycott SA. Just offer to adopt one of the elephants. You could walk it to Starbucks in the morning to get your fat free latte. What would you have them do with the overpopulation? Go to Kruger and see the destruction for yourself.
GK, Calgary, Canada
Culling of elephants to manage an ecosystem is a distressful event. It involves culling of whole families of elephants so that the survivors do not suffer from grief.
Unfortunately culling as a tool in the management of wild animal population like is an essential tool. The public needs to try understand this. For the time being there is no practical alternatives in many management of wild populations. In Australia thousands of kangeroos are culled each year.
A major global issue on Conservation to how to prevent some whale populations going extinct is the culling of Minke whales by Japanese and Norwegians. In the Southern Ocean there are many times more Minke whales now than 90 years ago when commercial whaling depleted the population of Blue, Sei and Fin whales. All these baleen whales eat Krill as their main source of food. Briitish scientists reported in the journal Nature Nov 2004 that the Krill population in the Southern Ocean has declined by about 80% since the 1970s.
According to data available at the International Whaling Commission website http://www.iwcoffice.org/publications/pubmain.htm, there are more than 500,000 Minke whales in the Southern Ocean and about 2300 Blue whales. Culling of the Minke whales is the practical thing humans can do to help prevent the Blue whales from going extinct. The beautiful Blue whale is the only whale population in the Southern Ocean that is at risk of extinction.
B S Goh, Sydney, Australia
The tree huggers can help here, apparently they are looking for volunteers fo assist the elephants to fit the condoms... The folks in the Kruger park know what they are doing and know that the culling is a distasteful option and would prefer to move animals where they can. This was tried in the past but with limited success. This is sad as Elephants are truly majestic, but if it is the last resort then they need to be allowed to do this
Davie, London,
I have been to the Kruger national park and saw for myself the damage that an over population of elephants can do to the environment. Although culling seems wrong it is the best way to ensure a balanced environment for all creatures literally big and small including the elephants themselves. Humans need to set aside their emotions sometimes for the greater good of the environment.
jamea, Bournemouth,
I am not an expert in wildlife management and I am not familiar with the figures relating to sustainable populations compared to potentially destructive overpopulation of the different species of animals in the National Parks in southern Africa- However, there are professional biologists who are experts in this field and have probably been consulted in this matter-
IF this cull has become a necessary step for the preservation of sustanable populations, I'd like to point out that there are some serious problems of hunger in some of the human populations in a number of the cities and towns in South African and its neighboring states and furthermore, believe it or not elephant meat is in fact edible- Some of the guide books to wild game hunting in fact include various recipes for preparing elephant meat-
Scott Benowitz, Rye, New York, U.S.A.
The realities are as follows: currently much of South Africa's wildlife is restricted to game reserves such as Kruger (and with complex issues over land in SA as it is, this is unlikely to change); there are too many elephants for the space available; allowing the situation to remain as it is will mean languishing death by starvation for not only many of the elephants, but also other species. Comparisons to the human condition, whilst tempting to draw, don't really offer solutions to the problem. Certainly options such as relocation and elephant contraception should be considered, but given the status quo these may not be enough to solve the current problem. Either way therefore it is likely to be a death sentence for many animals. When considering the overall consequences of the options open to conservationists and government, the sad truth is that dismissing culling outright may ultimately be the greater cruelty.
Nicola, London,
What a ridiculous and ignorant comment Mark. It has been quite obvious for decades, if not centuries, that Man is the biggest vandal. Our desecration of this poor planet and her inhabitants goes on unabated in every corner of the globe! Even in your own Oil Sands backyard. To suggest elephants are "park vandals running amok" shows you have no regard for the natural order of things. If there is a "need" for game parks, it Man's need - not Nature's! As Chris, the first commenter, so aptly observed, WE are the ones in need of population control - the world over! We are the ones who run amok in Nature's park!
Jeff , Toronto, Ontario, Canada
What ridiculous and ignorant comments Mark and BJ. It has been quite obvious for decades, if not centuries, that Man is the biggest vandal. Our desecration of this poor planet and her inhabitants goes on unabated in every corner of the globe! Even in your own Oil Sands backyard, Mark. To suggest elephants are "park vandals running amok" shows you have no regard for the natural order of things. If there is a "need" for game parks, it is Man's need - not Nature's, As Chris, the first commenter, so aptly observed, WE are the ones in need of population control - the world over! We are the ones who run amok in Nature's park.
Jeffrey A., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
There are also too many humans on this planet. Let's take care of that problem first. It's not murder, it's "population control". They are dangerous anyway. They too, spell doom for other species. Elephant "contraception" isn't a bad idea.
Chris, Old Saybrook, CT,U.S.A.
As someone who lived in Africa for 25 years and has regularly visited the game parks, bunny-huggers should stay out of the arguments and let the experts who have, with their forebears, created the parks and maintained them very well since. This is not a time for jealousy of the "great white hunters". This is a serious need to stop thousands of elephants dying of starvation and the vegetation being destroyed for years.
B J Deller, Marbella, Spain
Elephants are destructive by nature, and its quite obvious that over population will have a devestating effect on other wildlife. Im quite sure that if the over population was with Rate and not elephants, there wouldnt be quite so mush fuss. However, the fact remains that elephants and that includes ones with so called contraceptives, will maintain the destruction experienced today and for the next 50 years. Can we allow park vandells to run amock for 50+ years to the detriment of other animals just because we favour the elephant over such animals as wart hogs? If a cull of elephants will assist the park in general, then we should do so.
Mark Campling, Edmonton, Canada
I am sick and tired of people playing God, deciding that they have the right to "control" animal populations. It is humans who are invading and destroying the elephants' natural habitats . It is time we held humans responsible for destroying the planet and leave animals alone.
My boycott of South Africa starts NOW.
NT, Toronto, Canada
Strange how, as in this instance a voice is automatically given to the animal rights lobby whereas the hard fact presented by environmentalists and game managers on the ground are drowned out by typically emotional arguements.
Surely sense has to prevail and the South Africans will be left to manage there fabulously successful elephant population as they see fit.
Matthew Ward, Birmingham, UK