Hwange Elephant Population Destroying Ecosystem
http://www.radiovop.com


HWANGE, November 11 2008 - An environmental catastrophe is unfolding
in the Hwange National Park owing to large elephant numbers.

The 14 000 square kilometre park which has a carrying capacity of 14
000 elephants currently carries more than 100 000 jumbos which are depriving
other smaller animals of food and water.

"Hwange national park is under siege. One can hardly move for a
kilometre without coming across a herd of more than 20 elephants yet ideally
the park is supposed to carry one elephant per square kilometre. The
situation in the park is really worrisome because the normal ecosystem is
failing to cope with the increasing number of elephants," said Milton
Ckever, a Hwange based wild life conservationist in an interview with
RadioVOP.

Ckever said the elephants have uprooted most of the big trees in the
park depriving other animals of food.

"Even at the few remaining water points in the park - the jumbos are
in control, chasing away the smaller animals," he said.

The situation has been worsened by the national parks authority's
inability to maintain water pumps and supply diesel for the pumps at the
artificial water points. This has driven some of the animals from Hwange
National Park to cross into neighbouring Botswana in search of water.

Botswana television has been showing footage of elephants believed to
be crossing from Zimbabwe dying as they struggle to get to the few water
points in Eastern Botswana, which is also experiencing a dry spell.

I was there last month. It is as bad as reported.

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quote:

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Really worrying

I am yet reading again Mohoboh written by Ron Thomson a former chief warden. The situation then was worrying, it should undepictable now.
Why on earth the administration didn't take measures. Formerly Ted Denison also chief warden in Wankie ( Book : Wankiee) called for help.

I am 100% certain that rich hunters would pay huge amount of cash to secure heavy tuskers. I am also certain that many hunters would save money to take part in culling.

I think it would be a great idea to get experienced foreign hunters to come and assist experienced culling units sort out the elephant problem in Hwange, and in other areas. But I don't think anyone should shoot the big bulls of Hwange - that is sacrilege. They should target herds, when the big bulls are not with those herds. Certain suitable hunters should be given the option to accompany and participate in a cull, and pay a nominal amount for doing so. I can think of a few guys who would be very good at that type of work - jpk and 500grains to name a couple. Barrie Duckworth could lead the operation, and have guys like Pete Fick, Hilton Nichols, Butch Coaten, Jonathan Hulme, Bruce Watson, Neil Duckworth, Buzz Charlton, Peter Wood etc on the ground.

Reckon I should suggest the idea to the powers that are? Maybe Ganyana can do it for me, since he has a little more credibility and all....

David

A carrying capacity of 1 ele/1 sq. KM seems high IMO, but to have 1 ele/35 acres must surely mean mass starvation/death from disease is only months away, if that? The entire countryside must be devastated.

Looks like they're heading for a similar scenario as happened in Tsavo in 1971 with exactly the same cause and effect.

The whole sad sorry mess is detailed in 'The End of the Game' by Peter Beard.

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
Looks like they're heading for a similar scenario as happened in Tsavo in 1971 with exactly the same cause and effect.

The whole sad sorry mess is detailed in 'The End of the Game' by Peter Beard.

Exactly what I was thinking as I read the thread!

No doubt this is going on. Anybody that has been into an area where there are too many Jumbos has seen first hand the devistation and the collertal effects on other species.

What needs to happen is we need get SCI, DSC and other organizations to fund a trip over for a couple of the top ranking "Eco-types" to see for themselves just what is really happening. Then, in front of the camera they will be forced to admit that proper management of the herds is a must.

Otherwise, we will continue this "No-win" status quo till the bitter end.

We had better get really proactive and quick.

JW

Saeed, One Shot Walter, the Zims and the Papparrazi Gang will deal with the upstarts in do time!

They stopped the cull hunts a few weeks ago. I understand why but if something isn't done, there will be a major problem.

Yes Steve

15000 elephants starved to death in Tsavo.
Mahoboh book is very comprehensive about this process during the 40 first pages.
60 pumps that provide water, when fuel is handy, for the animals but not for the vegetation.
Destruction of the undergrowth by the elephants, wanton destruction of the big trees (baobabs) by bulls for the sheer fun of it. No longer any litter of dry leaves on the ground. The sun, the wind and the rain wipe out the superficial ground and what remains is the rock and the sand.
What was thick forest that deters eco-tourists complaining about this dense cover than keep them off seing game, it remains only swath of sand scattered with bleached skeletons.
The elephant has died, but beforehand all the animals (mammals, birds, invertebreas...)had succumbed.
the flora has disappeared and many species are extincted for ever.
the soil won't be compost again.
The Hwange is an extension of the Kalahari desert and will become a desert.
What has lacked is the stroke of an administrative pen to allow tremendous culling of elephant. No guts to curbr down the population of elephant, just to please the idiotics who called themselves ecologists and antihunters. The soils, the flora, the animals and the elephant are history.

Jean,

As soon as I read Kathi's post, I immediatly thought that it's exactly what RT predicted in Mahahoba and (I think) in some of his other books - but you beat me to it with your comment!

Less than 5 km from the park border along the railroad track and near one of the artificial waterholes we tended daily.
We also had to cut trees out of the roadway daily to get from one end of the concession to any other point.

It's a similar story in many other parts of
Africa as well ........ don't think it's limited to just one park in Zimbabwe. Botswana also has a same situation and plenty of other places...... what's really needed is a concerted management campaign that doesn't pussy foot around the problem and instead faces it head on and deals with it in a properly organised scientific manner.

What's needed is a correctly organised trans Africa, culling programme by proper, professional culling teams for the cows and calves and a concerted sport hunting programme on the bulls.

Sadly, there's more chance of the Elephants flying non-stop to Timbuctoo than there is of that happening.

Shakari and Africanhunter, me too! I even went to my trophy room and looked over the Tsavo pictures of Peter Baird's book The End of The Game.

I am afraid that if they start dying from malnutrition and disease, those "environmentalists" will say that their deaths was caused by the way Zim manages the herd, and that sustained use leads to overpopulation...the same talk I have heard in the US where hunters are responsible for whitetail overpopulation...

Hi, guys. Kathi is pointing out a problem which is being discussed by Parks. They are trying to come up with solutions, creative ideas. Of course one of them is to invite people in to hunt 10 jumbos a piece. But we all know hunts like that have to be done responsibly, so it takes time to work out the plans correctly.

Of course there is more to the story. I just returned from Hwange where I stayed for 18 days in a lodge overlooking a large, dammed-up watering hole. There was (somewhat uncharacteristic for this time of year) plenty of water both in this place and in the Matetsi Safari area in general. I can assure you that not one Hwange elephant drank at that water hole in the entire 18 days that I was there. Don't get the idea that the crisis is ubiquitous. Here is another part of the problem.

Seasonal fires swept through much of northern Zimbabwe, blackening everything. I cruised unit 3 daily and it looked like a lunar landscape. In spite of plenty of water there, there was not one elephant when I arrived there. By the end of my stay the elephants were just beginning to trickle back in from Hwange and Botswana. Eventually the elephant population of Matetsi will be huge, as always. Where were they? They had apparently taken off to find better forage in the park and in those parts of Botswana that were not charred. Now seasonal rains are hammering the area. Grass is plentiful and trees are greening up. I saw buffalo in the thousands daily.

One thing I'm saying is that the problem did not crop up overnight and it is going to take some time to solve. There is time to solve it. If you just read Kathi's concise description, you might have a knee-jerk response. That's understandable. Elephants can do damage. I think the elephants we are talking about will devastate some areas in the park, then progress on to new areas which are not yet sufficiently devastated. I am in agreement with our members that this represents a culling opportunity, but I think there really is time to do it with deliberation and wisdom, qualities in somewhat short supply in the "Ivory Towers" of Zimbabwe.

I spoke to one of my connections in the Kruger park and he told me the following:

Culling is approved but there has not been a shot fired yet. the process works like this.
where areas is devistated they have to proof that it is the elephants and not anything else and he says it more difficult to convince the board that it is the ellies than it is to find Micheal Jackson's original nose or the kruger millions.

the bunny hugger stil have their say

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Wemmer:
......................................

What needs to happen is we need get SCI, DSC and other organizations to fund a trip over for a couple of the top ranking "Eco-types" to see for themselves just what is really happening. Then, in front of the camera they will be forced to admit that proper management of the herds is a must.

.........................................


We had better get really proactive and quick.

JW

Jeff,

Methinks that the greenies and anti hunting lobby will admit that some proper herd management is required. Then they will go on to tell how effective male vasectomy is on elephant! If I wasn't so it would be a joke!

In good hunting.

Andrew McLaren