Revenge of the culled elephants
The Sunday Times
July 15, 2007

Christina Lamb, Livingstone, Zambia
THE British and American tourists dismounting elephants on the banks of the
Zambezi were all agreed: the elephant-back safari had been the highlight of
their African holiday. There was a chorus of "oohs" and "aahs" and a rush
for cameras as an eight-month-old baby elephant that had followed them,
gambolled clumsily in and out of her mother's massive legs.

But behind the picture-book scenes a war is under way. Many people in Zambia
and other parts of Africa are living in terror of elephants, which are
becoming increasingly aggressive. Scientists believe they may be seeking
revenge for the culling of their parents.

The once sleepy town of Livingstone is now a front line in a growing
conflict between elephants and humans competing for habitat. The settling of
people closer and closer to the national park, combined with an influx of
elephants from across the border in Zimbabwe, where economic collapse has
led to unbridled poaching and empty waterholes, produces almost daily
clashes.

At the office of the Zambia Wildlife Authority, a large blackboard on the
wall is chalked with recent incidents of elephants in villages, sometimes
marked "threat to life".

"We are working flat out," says Fritz Mubanga, senior wildlife police
officer, who has worked there for 12 years. "Almost every day we're having
to send an officer to stay somewhere until the elephant moves on. A few
years ago there was nothing like this."

Villagers are not only losing their crops but in some cases their lives.
Last year Jacqueline Lyamba, 25, and her two-year-old daughter, were killed
in Nakatindi township while her six-year-old son crouched behind a bush in
terror. On the other side of the border in March a British mother and
daughter were trampled to death on holiday in Hwange national park. Last
month an elephant overturned a truck on the highway.

"I see it as my mission to convince the world that elephants are horrible
things to live next door to," says Dr Loki Osborn, a biologist and member of
the Human-Elephant Conflict Working Group of the World Conservation Union.

"Westerners have this romantic vision of elephants. If you live in a place
where there aren't any you love them, but if you live somewhere where they're
a menace you hate them."

Now, with Osborn's help, locals are trying to fight back with an unlikely
weapon ? chilli.

"Chillis are to elephants what garlic is to vampires," he explained. "Give
them a whiff and they will dance around like cartoon characters, flaring
their ears, shaking their heads, blowing out air and trumpeting."

His organisation, the Elephant Pepper Development Trust, based in
Livingstone and funded in part by the US Wildlife Conservation Society,
promotes the use of chilli to drive hungry elephants away from crops.

"Their whole trunk is coated with a mucous membrane, and elephants have 100
or 150 times better sense of smell than humans," he says. "Their eyesight is
very poor and they get all their information through their trunks. So when
they breathe in even very small amounts of capsicum that you get when you
burn a chilli, their whole trunk is stimulated and it drives them crazy."

A self-confessed elephant fanatic, Osborn got the idea when he heard about a
Vietnam veteran in Montana with a grizzly bear problem who had tried to find
an alternative to guns. He developed a capsicum aerosol and in 1991 Osborn
took it to the Zambezi valley where he was astonished by the reaction.

Since then he has taught thousands of farmers to plant chilli pepper buffer
zones around their fields and to make what he calls dung-bombs from
ground-up peppers mixed with elephant dung. When these are burnt, they emit
spicy smoke.

"It's like tear gas to elephants," says Roy Kaanga, a farmer, his hands
black with chilli grease he is using to oil a string fence around his crops
as a first line of defence. Round the edge of his fields are chilli bushes.
Drying on the ground are some briquettes of fresh elephant dung that he has
collected and mixed with pounded chilli.

"If an elephant comes near, it runs like a jet," he laughs. He turned to
chilli in desperation in 2005 after nights when as many as 50 or 60
elephants rampaged over his land, destroying maize and vegetables.

The traditional methods of banging pots and pans, setting off firecrackers
and lighting fires had all failed. "Now I light these bombs at 10pm and they
burn for eight hours and Mr Kaanga is safe and can rest with my beautiful
family till morning."

Although some fear the technique drives the elephants on to other farms, it
is winning converts across Africa. Desperate farmers in Tanzania, Ghana,
Gabon, Congo, Botswana, Moz-ambique, Namibia and Swazi-land are all adopting
the technique as are Asian countries with elephant problems, including
India, where it has been taken up by tea estates in Assam.

Osborn's trust promises farmers it will purchase any chilli grown in defence
of their fields. The best is used to make pepper sauce; the rest goes for
the dung bombs.

At the trust's small office Audrey Siasale comes in with a sack of chilli
and a seven-month-old baby on her back. The sack is weighed out at 26lb. She
receives £6 and smiles broadly.

"I will use it to buy a school uniform," she says. "I would have to grow
four times as much wheat for the same money."

Asked if she likes elephants, she shakes her head. "No, I think we should
kill them," she says. "I see tourists taking photos of elephants but I don't
think they are attractive ? they kill people and do lots of damage."

The deep fear of elephants is not unfounded. Scientists say they are
attacking humans, each other and other animals more than before. In 2005
guards in South Africa's Pilanesberg national park shot three young male
elephants that had killed 63 rhinos and attacked tourists in safari Jeeps.

Gay Bradshaw, a psychologist at Oregon State University, believes that this
"hyper-aggres-sive" behaviour is due to posttraumatic stress syndrome
brought on by a combination of habitat loss and culling to control the
population.

"It's a cry for help," she says. "Their unprecedented behaviour is the
result of chronic and traumatic stress. I think it's evidence of
desperation."

Elephants are highly social animals and studies have shown that a young
elephant will stay within 15ft of its mother until it is eight. The male
elephants that killed the rhinos all saw their families culled when young.
"If the infant elephant experiences trauma such as witnessing the death of
the mother, the brain is affected," says Bradshaw.

At the wildlife office, Mubanga has never heard of posttraumatic stress but
is sure of one thing. "If you're shot in the leg you'll definitely be
annoyed and you won't forget even when the wound is healed," he said. "It's
the same with elephants."

The problem is exacerbated by an increase in elephant numbers. Herds in
southern Africa have rebounded since elephants were declared in danger of
extinction and a ban on ivory sales was imposed in 1989. Zambia has seen
numbers rise from 7,000 to an estimated 30,000.

"The basic management of elephants is out of sync," Osborn argues. "People
believe elephants are near extinction. In fact it's the other way round ?
they're recolonising parts of southern Africa where they haven't been for
100 years."

Elephant mace? I never thought of using chilis to stop one. Could work to help keep crop damage down. That must be why there are no elephants in Mexico.

quote:

That must be why there are no elephants in Mexico

SI!

Rich Elliott

Interesting to know what the old time elephant hunters would say about this, rather than promulgating the theories of some named Gay, who says it is an elephant "cry for help"

Haven't elephants always clashed with people when they came in contact with them, regardless of whether they saw their parents culled or not?

I don't know the answer, but it seems likely they did. Isn't it more logical that an elephant that has seen members of his "family" "murdered" would stay away from humans, rather than raid them in retaliation?

I'm glad it works better on elephants than it does on grizzly bears. There has long been the advice, when hiking in country that has grizzlies, to carry the capsicum spray and wear bells on your boot laces.
You can tell the difference between black bear scat and grizzly bear scat. The grizzly scat smells like chili and has bells in it.

There is no way I would recommend bear spray over a firearm...so I can't imagine using it on elephant. Of course, that's not really what the story is saying. No one is using spray to counter elephant charges.

quote:

Gay Bradshaw, a psychologist at Oregon State University, believes that this
"hyper-aggres-sive" behaviour is due to posttraumatic stress syndrome
brought on by a combination of habitat loss and culling to control the
population.

"It's a cry for help," she says. "Their unprecedented behaviour is the
result of chronic and traumatic stress. I think it's evidence of
desperation."

Incredible. The epitome of ascribing human traits to wild animals. I suppose the next step is putting elephant on Prozac. And some sort of therapy. Or talk to them - it worked for Dr. Doolittle.

A psychologist from Oregon is sure a fine authority to quote on dangerous game behavior.

The real cry for help here is some escapee from an Oregon commune weighing in on the issue.

As for the elephant, their cries for help have been heard and are routinely addressed by the administration of a copper and lead pill.

Why not get an expert from Zimbabwe to give us all advice on the habitat of the Spotted Owl while we're at it?

Post traumatic stress disorder in elephants. What next?