Conservationists Decry Resumption of ‘South African Elephant Culling

Animal rights activists in the United Kingdom on Tuesday expressed outrage at South Africa’s lifting of a 13-year ban on killing of elephants. The authorities in the African nation have insistently argued: “We are obliged to trim down the animal population’s increase of 5% in our well-managed national parks”.

But conservationists warn that the decision could encourage poachers to slaughter the animals for ivory; and further threaten the dwindling elephant population elsewhere on the African continent.

There have been months of debate since the South African and its Kruger National Park (KNP) put elephant culling on their agenda.

Since killing elephants was outlawed 14 years ago, the number in South Africa has soared from about 8,000 to more than 20,000.

They move through one of Africa’s biggest and best-managed reserves, which contain the country’s highest single population of elephants - now estimated at 15,000 - leave a swath of destruction.

Trampled thorn trees, bushes and dying roots, dried brittle by the sun, mark their route across a reserve visited by more than one million tourists a year.

Research in the 1990s found that the ideal “sustainable” elephant population for the Kruger would be 7,500. One elephant alone eats an estimated 375lb (170kg) of grass, tree bark and leaves every day.

Richard Leakey, chairman of Wildlife Direct and the man who led the worldwide campaign against the ivory trade in the 1980s, said of the cull: “It is a terrible thing to have to do this to such an intelligent species, but we have to find a solution to the numbers problem.

“I hope it will be a once-off and then we can keep the population in check with other measures.”

Animal rights defenders threatened to call for tourist boycotts and to mount other protests. Animal Rights Africa (ARA), one of the most radical opponents, said that it would organize public protests and legal action if the South African government did not drop culling as an option.

The group, like IFAW, favors measures such as elephant “contraception” and hugely expensive relocation.

The government department insists the country is trying to trim down the population of elephants which had over grown by 5%.

Source African Press Agency

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