Elephant population swells in Gonarezhou

Masvingo Correspondent

Bulawayo Sunday News March 16, 2008

THE population of elephants in Gonarezhou National Park continues to rise and has more than doubled the maximum number the park can carry, raising fears that the jumbos might cause extensive damage to the environment, Sunday News has established.

In an interview with the Sunday News on Thursday last week, the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority Southern Regional Manager in Masvingo, Mr Stanley Ruswa, revealed that there were at least 7 000 elephants in the park that had a carrying capacity of only 3 000.
Mr Ruswa pointed out that the transfer of elephants to other parks in the country was not only hampered by the cost of the process, but also the condition of other parks.
Hwange National Park for example, has excess elephants and therefore it is impossible to translocate the animals from Gonarezhou to that park.
“So far we have at least 7000 to 10000 elephants in the Gonarezhou National Park that has a capacity of 3000 elephants. We cannot transfer the jumbos to the other parks because the process requires a lot of financial resources that we do not have at the momentâ€, said Mr Ruswa.
He added that the $1 trillion that was made available to the park by the Government was not meant to translocate the animals, but to develop the Zimbabwean side of the Great Limpopo Trans-frontier Park.
He revealed that the Trans-frontier Park initiative, which sought to combine the Kruger National Park in South Africa, the Gaza in Mozambique and Gonarezhou in the southeastern lowveld of Zimbabwe, would help alleviate the congestion. It would strive to re-establish the historical animal migration route and the fragile virginal eco-systems.
Mr Ruswa was however quick to point out that at the moment, there was no workable measures to reduce the animal population.
He said National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority used to cull the animals, but the method was no longer recommended as a way of controlling animal population.
Zimbabwe is a signatory to the convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) a convention that discourages culling as a measure to reduce animal population.
Mr Ruswa also stated that although the $1 trillion that they received from the Government was not enough to make all the developments needed in the park due to the prevailing hyper-inflationary environment, they would do what they could use the resources sparingly.
“We want to construct a Cause Way along the Runde River and many other developments, but the $1 trillion is not much considering the rate of inflation. We will however always do whatever we can. Electricity has since been connected and we are in the process of advertising for tenders so that work could begin,†said the regional manager.
He revealed that the elephants were causing extensive damage to the environment and that the problem would continue unabated until the Great Limpopo Trans-national Park was complete.
Fears abound however that the elephants might encroach into the areas of human habitation if no stopgap measures were put in place to control the population.

Trust me, when the folks there or elsewhere on the planet get hungry enough, they will figure a way to solve an over population of animals, elephant or otherwise. Don't believe I would put much faith in the government of Zimbabwe solving even basic problems, much less large problems as elephants and more than there should be. Don't believe the gene pool there is real deep.

With Kruger itself at over capacity on eles what will establishing a corridor with Kruger really solve? Kruger has its own problems right now with too many eles. I have read John Osborne's books on his groundwork in working in and in helping to establish the Gonarezhou National Park as it is today, and it is sad to see that the culling was stopped because of the stubborness of some knuckleheads, both black and white.

If both the Kruger and Gonarezhou parks are well over their carrying capacity of Elephants, one can only hope the Mozambique section of the trans frontier park has room for more.
Its got to be a good thing the Crooks corner/ Malipati hunting areas are situated between these parks and no wonder they produce big bulls.

Richard Harland did a lot of work in Gonarezhou and wrote about it in his books. I sent this article to him in an email in case he didn't see it. He's a touch busy right now with all of the bat guano hitting the fan over there.

Zambezi Hunters is trying todo its part to relieve the overpopulation of Gonarhezou by shooting them as they come out of the park to their Mahenya concession.

Actully shooting a few trophy bulls does nothing but making some additional non-trophy quota availalbe could not hurt anything.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
...making some additional non-trophy quota availalbe could not hurt anything.

Mark

Now we're talking! Let me know if that changes for them Mark?

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Zambezi Hunters is trying todo its part to relieve the overpopulation of Gonarhezou by shooting them as they come out of the park to their Mahenya concession.

Actully shooting a few trophy bulls does nothing but making some additional non-trophy quota availalbe could not hurt anything.

Mark

Sport hunting of bulls does absolutely nothing for population control. You have to harvest cows to do that, but Shakari is firmly against cow hunting?

465H&H

Well, that's how I feel about it but Steve and I don't agree on this one. How you reduce population growth without taking out does, cows, ewes, whatever is a tough one!

i believe jumbo moore is still taking his share on the border in gohnarezingwa. eles in that area are rather cheeky, the park has no money to even feed their staff, the water pumps are mostly broken down, so the eles are frequently out of the park looking for food and water. but they have been hunted for years and are stupid about it