http://www.reuters.com/article...dUSBRE87E0FK20120815


South Africa goes big on birth control for elephants

By Jon Herskovitz

JOHANNESBURG | Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:23am EDT

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African province home to thousands of elephants is planning a birth control campaign for the pachyderms to prevent a population explosion that could threaten plants and wildlife.

Unlike other parts of Africa where elephant stocks have dwindled to dangerously low levels due to poaching and a loss of habitat, South Africa has seen its populations steadily grow through conservation, with the country pressed for room to house the massive animals with hefty diets.

KwaZulu-Natal province, in the southeast, is looking to expand a project running for more than a decade where elephants populations have been controlled by injecting cows with a vaccine that triggers an immune system response to block sperm reception.

"Slowing the growth rate will allow time to be gained to achieve other biodiversity objectives, such as land expansion, without having to cull the elephants," said Catherine Hanekom, an ecologist for Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.

South Africa, which had just over 100 elephants nearly a century ago, now has more than 20,000, studies said.

The overpopulation problem is the most dire in neighboring Botswana, home to at least 133,000 elephants, where vast forests have been lost to satiate their appetites. With a human population of 2 million, it has the highest elephant-to-people ratio in Africa, at one for every 14 people.

Adult elephants consume about 100 to 300 kgs (220 to 660 pounds) of food a day and most elephants in South Africa are in fenced-in reserves where vegetation could be decimated if populations grow too large.

"Because we have taken away opportunities, they don't have the chance to remedy the overpopulation naturally as they would through migration," said Audrey Delsink Kettles, an elephant ecologist who has been leading studies for years on contraception at Makalali Private Game Reserve.

Testing of the vaccine, administered by dart and requiring an annual booster, has been conducted at 14 small reserves. Studies have shown it is reversible, nearly 100 percent effective and has no adverse impact on elephant health or behavior, Kettles said.

Contraception is seen as a humane alternative for controlling populations over the other main options of culling herds or moving them vast distances to areas with more food.

The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International have backed the vaccine.

"Failure to control the reproduction of the species ... leads to a population that exceeds the carrying capacity of the reserve and to habitat degradation," they said in statement.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz, editing by Paul Casciato)

Another greenie, thoughtless idea that might have far reaching results than even they have imagined!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...ed-frozen-sperm.html

This will confuse the issue.!
I'd like to see the mammouth brought back.It would be nice to see them again here in NY State !

Anything endorsed by any "humane society" is bound to be a crock of sh#t!!

WHEN THEY SHOOT THE COWS, HOW DO THEY KNOW THAT ARE NOT SHOOTING THE SAME ONE TWICE??? seems like a logistical nightmare to separate out previously shot cows in a cow/calf herd from those needing a first shot or a booster. as stated above, if the Humane Society backs it- IT IS PRETTY MUCH BULLSHIT!

This whole thing is nothing but a PR exercise to get more money for the bunny huggers.

Where it will do absolutely NOTHING for the welfare of the elephants.

Trouble is, it sounds nice, and the ignorant population will swallow it all.

There have been experiments done in the past with this crap. The one thing that threw the whole effort out was that the cows, although not receptive, gave off a discharge that indicated to the bulls that the cows were in oestrous. The result was a lot of stressed cows being hounded by angry bulls whose own musth cycles were thrown out. A really good situation in camera tourist parks, angry and frustrated bulls wrecking everything in their paths.

Just what I want to do, take a dart gun into a cow herd!

quote:

Originally posted by Scriptus:
There have been experiments done in the past with this crap. The one thing that threw the whole effort out was that the cows, although not receptive, gave off a discharge that indicated to the bulls that the cows were in oestrous. The result was a lot of stressed cows being hounded by angry bulls whose own musth cycles were thrown out. A really good situation in camera tourist parks, angry and frustrated bulls wrecking everything in their paths.

Link or citation by any chance?

Looking, Looking, Googling coming up

http://connection.ebscohost.co...rth-control-backfire

http://news.google.com/newspap...IBAJ&pg=5969,5978619

http://www.ceru.up.ac.za/downl...ng_the_elephants.pdf

That should keep you out of mischief for awile.

Lessee, now, an annual booster is required for each cow. Do we have to equip them with ID tags, or maybe tracking collars so we can be sure that each cow gets her proper yearly booster? One wonders just how small are the "small private reserves" where the testing was done. Trying to dart any signifigant number of cow eles semms like the very quintesence of taking a knife to a gunfight! As an aside to all this, there is no greater example of the moral fiber of hunters than the fact that Wayne Pacelle of HSUS is still breathing!

RE - Tar - DED

quote:

That should keep you out of mischief for awile.

Not likely!

Thanks for the links though.

Found one myself: http://www.elephantassessment....ant%20Management.pdf