http://www.news24.com/Green/Ne...mid-drought-20160914



Kruger National Park kills 350 hippos, buffalos amid drought


2016-09-14 12:03

Johannesburg - Rangers in South Africa's biggest wildlife park are killing about 350 hippos and buffalos in an attempt to relieve the impact of the region's most severe drought in more than three decades.

The numbers of hippos and buffalos in Kruger National Park, about 7 500 and 47 000 respectively, are at their highest level ever, according to the national parks service. Officials plan to distribute meat from the killed animals to poor communities on the park's perimeter.

The drought has left millions of people across several countries in need of food aid.

Hippos and buffalos consume large amounts of vegetation, and many animals are expected to die anyway because of the drought, said Ike Phaahla, a parks service spokesperson. A drought in the early 1990s reduced Kruger park's buffalo population by more than half to about 14 000, but the population rebounded.

Pushed to act

Rangers are targeting hippos in "small natural pools where they have concentrated in unnatural high densities, defecate in the water, making it unusable to other animals," Phaahla wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

Parks officials have described drought as a natural way of regulating wildlife populations. Earlier this year, they said they didn't plan any major intervention to try to save wild species in Kruger park, but the drought's impact intensified.

Hippos are in particular trouble because they can't feed as widely as other animals, returning to water by day after grazing by night.

South Africa's parks service stopped killing elephants to reduce overpopulation in 1994, partly because of public opposition.

Around 1900, hunting had cleared out elephants in the area that became Kruger park. Today, there are an estimated 20 000 elephants there. Poachers killed 36 elephants this year in the park, raising concerns that the Africa-wide slaughter of elephants for their ivory is finally affecting South Africa.

Poachers have already killed large numbers of rhinos in the park, which borders Zimbabwe and Mozambique and is almost the size of Israel.

Generations ago, an estimated 15 000 people lived in the area that was officially proclaimed as Kruger park in 1926. Some communities were removed from the wildlife reserve under white minority rule at that time.

"These people were pure hunter-gatherers and we greatly underestimate their role in shaping this ecosystem," Phaahla said. "We have removed this important driver from the Kruger ecosystem and we are researching ways to simulate the return of their role again and the removals or off-takes (of some animals) aim to do just that."

quote:

"These people were pure hunter-gatherers and we greatly underestimate their role in shaping this ecosystem," Phaahla said. "We have removed this important driver from the Kruger ecosystem and we are researching ways to simulate the return of their role again and the removals or off-takes (of some animals) aim to do just that."

Would it ne naïve of me to ask why not try controlled hunting? For a fee of course.

I was in Kruger the first week of August and to say the southern part of Kruger is dry is an understatement. Much of it was like a moonscape and devoid of grass or shrubs. Impala grazed on what little green grass grew long the side of the road from the little condensation that forms on the asphalt overnight. Tough.

The culling programs should never have been stopped in Kruger.

The numbers they are taking off is way to low and too late in the drought to make any difference in the situation.

Please note that this is culling operation where trained rangers take off animals as quickly and humanely as possible.

Its not hunting but a wildlife management tool.

Agree. Also should have let old Mother Nature do her thing so the antis and the bunny huggers could actually see just how terrible she can really be, especially when culling and/or controlled hunting is not a part of the formula for conservation.

quote:

Originally posted by Gerhard.Delport:
The culling programs should never have been stopped in Kruger.

The numbers they are taking off is way to low and too late in the drought to make any difference in the situation.

Please note that this is culling operation where trained rangers take off animals as quickly and humanely as possible.

Its not hunting but a wildlife management tool.

i think Creshelton and I are thinking along the same lines though: use hunting within Kruger as a wildlife management tool (that is what hunting is all about anyway, wildlife management with a tasty outcome)

no it wouldn't be your typical hunt since in essence it would happen in one section of the park while tours were happening elsewhere and it woudln't be trophy hunting but for someone that wants to go shoot a hippo (or 5) the park could make some $$, an outfitter & PH could make some $$, and the locals would get their meat from the animals just the same

quote:

Would it ne naïve of me to ask why not try controlled hunting? For a fee of course.

There are two or three operators:
You can do it, if you have enough time and money.
Of course only at special days and parts of the park, that the "normal people" dont see it.
And yes, it is legal and the have the permission of the SA government.

quote:

Originally posted by Bockhunter:

quote:

Would it ne naïve of me to ask why not try controlled hunting? For a fee of course.

There are two or three operators:
You can do it, if you have enough time and money.
Of course only at special days and parts of the park, that the "normal people" dont see it.
And yes, it is legal and the have the permission of the SA government.

Sir , there is no legal hunting inside Kruger National Park. Anyone advertising so is doing so illegally. There are areas bordering the Park , tribal land and other private reserves, that have limited hunting quota but not inside the Park. It is a marketing method used by unscrupulous operators to say to a client he will be hunting inside Kruger Park. I would be very interested to know who the operators are that advertise hunting inside Kruger. Maybe you would care to forward me these operators names , you obviously have been offered this information.