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Elephants face slaughter in Save Valley


Posted on April 29, 2016 by ZimSitRep_M



Source: Elephants face slaughter in Save Valley – The Zimbabwe Independent April 29, 2016

ABOUT 300 elephants and some lions could be culled — reduced in population through selective slaughter — in the Save Valley Conservancy amid reports that the large number of animals at the conservancy in the South East Lowveld of Zimbabwe is destroying the area’s biodiversity in the wake of the El Nino-induced drought that has hit the country.

Wongai Zhangazha

The planned culling has sparked a war-of-words between range owners and some militant conservationists.

Zimbabwe Wildlife Conservation Taskforce chairperson Johnny Rodrigues said he was convinced the animals were being culled as part of a ploy by range owners to force America to reverse the ban on ivory trade and trophy hunting. Europe is considering a similar ban. He said the culling of the animals was shocking and a gross infringement of animal rights.


Culling involves reducing the population of a wild animal by selective slaughter. It is usually done by sedating selected animals before shooting them.

However, Save Valley Conservancy vice-chairperson Wilfried Pabst, a German national, in a telephone interview this week said culling would only be a last resort.

He said the conservancy was in a dilemma with what to do with the increasing number of wild animals, but was considering various options, including translocation before culling.

“I understand that 300 elephants are being culled and it’s something that’s being carried out now by different ranches in the Save Conservancy. It’s really surprising that people can kill such a big number of elephants claiming that elephant population is too high yet the estimates are so secretive and also vary. These are people who want to try and give this picture to America that the banned trophy hunting has left them with no choice, but to kill these animals,” Rodrigues said.

“Instead of trying to raise funds to translocate these animals to probably Gonarezhou National Park, they decide to cull the elephants. What is going to happen to all the meat, how about all the ivory considering that we successfully lobbied for a ban in ivory with America? The state should be responsible and take action.”

“While it was expensive to transfer the elephants from one area to another with the cost of one elephant being at most US$10 000, this culling should be stopped and funds should be raised to transfer the elephants,” he said.

Asked to comment, Pabst described Rodrigues as a loud-mouthed person who was failing to provide solutions to conserving wild animals.

“Yes we have too many elephants, but there is no culling that’s taking place at the moment. Rodrigues invents all kinds of stories, he is just ill-informed. The question that needs to be asked to him is what has he done to protect wild animals? He always complains, but why doesn’t he offer any solutions. Bubye recently said they are finding difficulties in managing lions, and were considering different ideas of what to do with 200 lions but did he offer any solution, it is just complaints,” he said.

“What we are considering at Save Conservancy is a translocation of the animals to other areas. I can’t get into details about it until the deals are generally concluded. If the transactions are sealed there will be translocation maybe in Zimbabwe maybe not of a variety of animals’ elephants and lions included. People need to consider that there is drought and there are too many animals that are causing a strain on the plain. So we are trying every avenue here we can to make sure we save the animals. Who knows maybe sometime next year we can consider culling some of the animals.”

Save Valley Conservancy measures about 3 400 square kilometres and was formed by combing 24 adjoining farms.

Good for Willi.

Having been to the Save multiple times, there is little doubt that there are too many animals of certain species. Elephants are one of those species.

I vividly remember my last trip in 2012. We were on top of this flat topped mountain looking towards the Save River. We could see hundreds of elephants from our view point. They were destroying everything.

I realize that culling is not hunting. That said, it would be a pity if there were not some way for the folks in the Save to raise some much needed funds for the remaining game in the Conservancy by coming up with a way to offer hunters the ability to participate in the program in some fashion.

Thanx Willi.

Johnny be good Rodrigues for your info SVC had 60 elephant 25 years ago.600 introduced to SVC in 1994. Today it has over 1800. Aerial game counts have been carried out since 2001 by various ecologists.Nothing to hide all signed by recognised Doctors in ecology and submitted to National parks on an annual basis.

The suggestion of capturing elephant and translocating to Ghona re Zhou is definitely not an option as the park is over stocked. Obviously its choice would be to capture and relocate if 1) We can get permits
2) We find a destination
3) Find the funding

I would like to add that masvingo province after the drought in 1992 had a small population of about 50 lion in the Ghona re Zhou national park,500 buffalo,50 wild dogs. The conservancies had just started and did not have the above species.

Today between Malalangwe,Bubye,SVC and Nuanetsi there is over 1000 lion,500 wild dogs and over 15000 buffalo.

Johnny be good where were you when the operators were protecting this land from human encroachment,Poaching and politics????

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/
He said the culling of the animals was shocking and a gross infringement of animal rights.

'Sounds like Johnny is polishing a few new phrases for some new donors.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
I realize that culling is not hunting. That said, it would be a pity if there were not some way for the folks in the Save to raise some much needed funds for the remaining game in the Conservancy by coming up with a way to offer hunters the ability to participate in the program in some fashion.

Sounds like some nice non trophy hunts would solve part of the problem and create some needed funding.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Lozano:

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
I realize that culling is not hunting. That said, it would be a pity if there were not some way for the folks in the Save to raise some much needed funds for the remaining game in the Conservancy by coming up with a way to offer hunters the ability to participate in the program in some fashion.

Sounds like some nice non trophy hunts would solve part of the problem and create some needed funding.

Now that would be "tooo smart"

I am honestly surprised that the government has not killed JR.

well done to all the operators in the SVC , Guy you guys are doing a splendid job , a first world model in a third world country , weather the jumbos are moved or hunted its an excellent example of what sustainble hunting can do in the long term , Pamberi SVC , unfortunaly little Johnny is in for the big donations

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Lozano:

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
I realize that culling is not hunting. That said, it would be a pity if there were not some way for the folks in the Save to raise some much needed funds for the remaining game in the Conservancy by coming up with a way to offer hunters the ability to participate in the program in some fashion.

Sounds like some nice non trophy hunts would solve part of the problem and create some needed funding.

culling is VERY different to hunting. Even more so when it comes to elephants. Only professionals with the requisite experience should be involved.

How wonder how many amateur elephant hunters would get killed (either by elephants or other hunters), if the government opened up the area to everyone who could pay a $50.00 per head shooting fee?

Might be a helluva way to end an old hunters days.

BH63

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
I realize that culling is not hunting. That said, it would be a pity if there were not some way for the folks in the Save to raise some much needed funds for the remaining game in the Conservancy by coming up with a way to offer hunters the ability to participate in the program in some fashion.

Zero chance of that - Save has been culling herds for a while. It's a brutal nasty business with helicopters and shooting groups of professionals (your ph and appies) taking down herds in seconds. This includes baby elephants. This is the right thing to do from a conservation view and better than selling 60 hunts to shoot cows out of herds and damage entire herds.

None of these hunts are videotaped or recorded - they really don't want someone leaking this to the uneducated news media or on social media.

Mike

Johnny's the guy who wanted $30,000 in donations to erect a bronze statue of Cecil at the entrance to Hwange when the various boots-on-the-ground anti-poaching initiatives locally are scrounging for a pittance to pay confidential informants. The word "conservationist" is highly misplaced.

quote:

Originally posted by Guy Whittall:
Thanx Willi.

Johnny be good Rodrigues for your info SVC had 60 elephant 25 years ago.600 introduced to SVC in 1994. Today it has over 1800. Aerial game counts have been carried out since 2001 by various ecologists.Nothing to hide all signed by recognised Doctors in ecology and submitted to National parks on an annual basis.

The suggestion of capturing elephant and translocating to Ghona re Zhou is definitely not an option as the park is over stocked. Obviously its choice would be to capture and relocate if 1) We can get permits
2) We find a destination
3) Find the funding

I would like to add that masvingo province after the drought in 1992 had a small population of about 50 lion in the Ghona re Zhou national park,500 buffalo,50 wild dogs. The conservancies had just started and did not have the above species.

Today between Malalangwe,Bubye,SVC and Nuanetsi there is over 1000 lion,500 wild dogs and over 15000 buffalo.

Johnny be good where were you when the operators were protecting this land from human encroachment,Poaching and politics????

Spot on!

A few weeks ago there were some articles going around about Save Valley wanting to cull a bunch of lions due to the drought, but seemingly also to antagonise USFWS.

I don't know if there's any truth in this, but if so I don't think it helps our cause.

When there's a drought your predators play a vital role in bringing down herbivore numbers. So, claiming ecological justification for the cull takes away from it's credibility.

Perhaps everything was reinterpreted for the press by Rodriguez, but could the folks from Save shed some light on this lion 'cull'?

It was not the Save. It was Bubye.

Sorry, my mistake! Anybody want to weigh in on that though?

sure

if the hunting demand and the cash flow derived from that activity can not be employed

the apex predator acting as a conservationist will kill them to save the range resources and prevent a catastrophic collapse of habitat [[carrying capacity]]

every one with an elementary education in conservation of-- soil-- habitat and wildlife-- understands this

save valley, Bubye or okavango botswana location will not matter on this issue

if you lose the base of the pyramid == the soil == not even god can bring the elephant back

what will the usfws do when this happens again as it has had to be done in the past

run in the bathroom lock the door and hold the noes

as any cowardly tramp that started the fight in the bar just for another drink and a little bit of attention ever does

that's my take on it Black

will they come out when things are a little less hot and blame point fingers and monday morning quarterback

well hell yes --why not

after all that is what all government workers do

about the only thing they do well

With regard to Save Valley Conservancy Panthera advised us 3 years ago that the SVC had a carrying capacity of 150 to 180 lion.Anything over and above this would start to impact heavily on other species especially our eland population. In december 2015 the count was estimated at 285 lion. This is likely to be a minimum of 330 by the end of 2016.

We have got to a point now where you can only sport hunt a certain amount of males to sustain an annual off take of 5 years +.Government will not allocate a female quota to be hunted.

Females are the problem.(funny that). So yes we are exploring options on how to take care of the excess females. Hopefully these will be found homes elsewhere in zimbabwe.

With all the information and facts documented by recognised ecologists the reality is SVC is over stocked with both elephant and Lion. I would add wild dog to the list.

The question is how is USF&G the EU and CITES going to accommodate these successful models like Bubye and SVC.

I second what Guy has to say. I hunted the Save on four consecutive years. The lion population was growing exponentially from what I could see. I forget the number but I saw a staggering number of lions on my last trip to Sango. I could have easily shot several fully mature males.

Elephants are out of control as well. The number seen in a single day was nothing short of astounding. Several hundred in a day was not uncommon.

quote:

Females are the problem.(funny that). So yes we are exploring options on how to take care of the excess females. Hopefully these will be found homes elsewhere in zimbabwe.

Thanks for clarifying.

African Parks may want to take some prides for two parks in Malawi. Message me for contact details.

What the anti's don't realise when they read there 'there used to be half a million lions in Africa' campaign adverts, is that THERE IS NO SPACE LEFT, hunting or no hunting!

Awesome!!

Black Lechwe i am terrible finding my way around this forum. Please can you send me an email to rogerwhittallsafaris@gmail.com or to my wife Hannah - hannahstookswhittall@gmail.com