Opinion & Analysis
From BusinessDay

Posted to the web on: 17 September 2007
Cull the jumbos


I have just returned from the Kruger National Park, which I have been visiting for some 30 years now, and was aghast to see the destruction of the bush due to the overpopulation of elephants, Elephant cull would be at cost to tourism (September 12).

The Kruger National Park was created to sustain all endemic wild plants and animal life forms that the natural ecosystems can support. I question why the uncontrolled proliferation of elephants should be allowed to the detriment of other biological diversity.

Kruger Park rangers told me that the park could sustain 7000 elephants, and that the number was currently at 14000!

I suggest that Steve Smit from the Animal Rights Africa Trustee read Ron Thomson’s books, articles and letters on the realities of wildlife management to understand the devastating consequences to other life forms of not culling. Members of Parliament’s environmental affairs and tourism portfolio committee should invite Thomson to their next meeting to hear the facts of why SA should not heed the threats of international boycotts from these “ecoterroristsâ€.

The cost of losing some tourists is a price I, as a nature-conserving South African, will happily pay to protect this wonderful park for generations yet to come.


Louise Brugman

Johannesburg

Amen. Was just there two months ago myself and saw the same things. In fact, there may be closer to 15K ele in the park, rather than the 14K unofficially reported.

Anyone remember the Kaibab Plateau story?

Sigh.

You're talking about the mule deer there, right?

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
Amen. Was just there two months ago myself and saw the same things. In fact, there may be closer to 15K ele in the park, rather than the 14K unofficially reported.

14-15K elephants, in one area? This certainly goes against the "endangered" theory that one always hears.

Elephants only appear to be endangered where hunting is prohibited and government officials are in league with ivory poachers. Can anyone guess where?

quote:

Originally posted by jetdrvr:
Elephants only appear to be endangered where hunting is prohibited and government officials are in league with ivory poachers. Can anyone guess where?

I can imagine where.

"Endangered" - per definition - means that a species is in imminent danger of extinction. Elephants in Southern Africa, especially Kruger, have never been. The debate unfortunately ended up as an emotionional, unscientific one - and was highjacked for own benefit by the so-called animal rightist movements. These folks are like sand, they get in everywhere ...

Not, that I'm an expert but even if the cull those 7000 odd ele's that over the limit today it would take at least 15-20 years for the veld to recover. And that will be only if they keep culling every 4 years like they use to.

So even if they start the cull process the conditions are still going to go backwards no matter what they do.

/

If a scientific study concludes there are too many Jumbos for the park then I propose they be moved by cruiseship to new free range areas such as Boston, NYC, D.C., and Seattle if there are really mean ones.

quote:

Originally posted by Macifej:
If a scientific study concludes there are too many Jumbos for the park then I propose they be moved by cruiseship to new free range areas such as Boston, NYC, D.C., and Seattle if there are really mean ones.

Off topic, but:

Maybe we can let them feed off of the olive trees and nice grass lawns thoughout the lovely Californian state (like in Oakland, Berkeley, Malibu, Palo Alto, etc)? The anti's should love that, since we're all about "hugging" these days. Let them hug a Jumbo after it sits on their Range Rovers.

Alf,

Since I was just there in July also, you must have seen a different Kruger than I did. Many trees were very small, and torn off. Amarula and Ironwood trees were being pushed over because of the lack of stuff to eat for the ele's. Elephants only process 41% of the stuff they take in which means they eat a lot of food that goes to waste. I probably saw 500+ ele's in Kruger along with Lion, Leopard, Buff, about 7,000 impala and even a honey badger.

Here is what I saw a lot of. I really don't think it was from wind shear

One of the major problems with elephants is introduction of artificial watering-holes and fences, such as the Kruger NP. Back in the old days in South Africa, elephants would have been able to migrate northwards, following old migration paths in times of drought. As far as I know, elephants breed more abundantly when free water is available (as far as I know). If this is true, that is quite a clever principle, as obviously in bad times if reproduction is halted, energy is not wasted on rearing offspring, which may not survive, and numbers would be thinned out naturally by droughts.

Obviously, with a rapid growth rate, with no-where to go, and few natural predators, one can expect elephants to increase in numbers. From what I have heard, most parks are literally giving elephants away, as no-one wants them, you need to have expensive adequate fencing and lots of space. On some of the smaller reserves, birth-control can help curb numbers without culling, and even relocation to a degree, although this ends up being very expensive with such large animals. In the major reserves, once carrying capacity has been exceeded, the only options become either controlled hunting or culling. Cullng is a very sad, distressful and unfortunate thing to have to do (for both humans and animals), and many people are opposed to it, especially the tourist fraternity, (who are responsible for generating most of the income from the industry, but who are also mainly opposed to it) but unfortunately, one can not let the elephants damage the vegetation to a point that it impacts on biodiversity. At the end of the day it is probably the only viable management tool in Kruger, and will have to be done I believe. The question of how many elephants are too much is a very difficult question, and depends on the vegetation and carrying capacity, but I can see major decions having to be made pretty soon on this one. It is a tangle of ethics and tourism I think at the moment, and sooner or later culling will probably have to go ahead, it is just being stalled at the moment as experts from all sides sit down and try discuss what to do about the situation.