This article is from the Zimbabwe Chronicle, Dec. 28, 2004


Plans to cull jumbos mulled
Assistant News Editor
NATIONAL Parks and Wildlife Management Authority is planning to cull some elephants in an effort to control the ballooning jumbo population, that has also caused serious damage to the biodiversity, driving other smaller animal species to extinction, Chronicle has learnt.
Parks� public relations manager Retired Major Edward Mbewe said plans to control the elephant population were underway.
�We have plans to reduce the elephant population, as a control mechanism in the wake of the large numbers of the animals and the destruction being caused to the environment,� he said.
The targeted jumbos are in the Parks Estates, communal areas and in Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources.
Retired Major Mbewe could not say how many animals have been targeted.
�We are working on a programme which will start very soon, then we will be having the numbers and specific areas,� he said.
Zimbabwe is also heading the Elephant Management Taskforce, which is aimed at coordinating strategies to address elephant problems within the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Delegates from countries having problems with elephants at the recent Wildlife Consultative Forum in Sun City in South Africa, said there was need to reduce the jumbo population by 50 percent to prevent further loss to biodiversity in their protected areas.
Zimbabwe was chosen to spearhead the campaign to manage elephants that involves culling as one of the options.
Retired Major Mbewe said faced with such a crisis there was need to act by reducing the numbers.
The elephant population in the country grew from 89 000 in 2001 to about 100 000 this year which is the second highest in the Southern African region after Botswana which has 123 000.
Other countries are also battling to manage elephant populations. Namibia has 14 000, South Africa 14 000, Tanzania 120 000 and Mozambique 19 000.
Zambia has 25 000 while Swaziland has less than 30 elephants.
Apart from posing serious threat to the environment, too many elephants also increase human and wildlife conflicts, as the jumbos would move to areas where there is food and water.
However plans to reduce the elephant population has been sharply criticised by some animals rights groups in the country.
The Zimbabwe Conservation Taskforce said it is opposed to the culling as there has been no proper census to determine the number of the elephants in Parks estates.
� We are strongly opposed to this in view of the fact that no accurate counting has been done and nobody knows how many elephants we have. There have been very few elephant sightings in Hwange this past year and we sincerely hope enough pressure can be put on National Parks to abandon this idea until such time that a proper count is done,� said the organisation.

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