A quirky look at wildlife. To be taken with a pinch of
salt, but with more than a grain of truth!

But apparently we do! I have written before about my love of
elephants and I know many, many people feel the same. Apparently,
though, love is not enough. Almost twenty years ago I joined the world
wide fight to save the African elephant from near extinction. Numbers
had dropped dramatically as a result of poaching for ivory and the
heart-rending sight of dead elephants, their tusks ripped out, moved
most of us.

As a result of our efforts a ban on the ivory trade was put in place
in 1989. A collective sigh of relief was followed by the realisation
that such a ban was going to be difficult to enforce. However, ivory
poaching did drop dramatically and elephant herds increased. So
dramatically have they increased that we now have a different
predicament pulling at the heartstrings.

Being involved with a large conservation organisation whose byword has
always been science-based decisions, coupled with sound common sense,
I have rarely disagreed with their aims. Now, however, I have a
personal dilemma in which my heart is fighting my head.

My common sense tells me that if there are too many elephants for the
carrying capacity of the land, elephants will die and many other
animals with them. Insufficient food and habitat is causing
overcrowding and bringing elephants in to even more conflict with
people. Therefore something must be done. That's the head talking.

As an elephant cull on a massive scale is being contemplated in 2007
in Kruger Park, South Africa the heart screams out No!! This can't be
right. To encourage the breeding of elephants for the survival of the
species and also as a tourist attraction was fine and dandy while it
lasted, but now we have elephants surplus to requirements! Many
strategies have been tried. Some have succeeded, some have failed but
to kill whole families, yes kill because that is what it is, seems
unbelievably cruel. It is against all our better instincts. This
species is a kindred spirit of ours, with all of our best
characteristics and few of the bad ones. It is called a cull, because
the killing is selective rather than random, as if that makes it all
right.

The thought of families of elephants being rounded up and shot makes
my flesh crawl.

They have telepathic powers and communication skills way beyond ours,
and this trauma will be transmitted far and wide. Panic is bound to
set in and the thought of mothers with calves running for their lives
is awful. Tiny babies with wobbly legs and floppy trunks, the darlings
of the wildlife TV programmes, being shot alongside mothers, sisters
and brothers, aunts. Possibly the odd bull elephant, too, if they are
with the herd and not solitary as is their wont.

It has to be families in order not to disrupt the hierarchy and not
leave orphans, too few bulls, or too many cows. One mustn't upset the
balance. Sufficient older matriarchs and bulls are needed to teach
the young ones how to live and behave, much like it should be in
human society.

Many other options have been tried - relocation, contraception and
increasing habitat availability. Relocation is deemed too difficult
and too expensive and the elephants are an independent and cussed
breed anyway. For example, the first elephants relocated from South
Africa into Mozambique promptly marched back home!

Contraception was tried, involving placing slow-release oestrogen
implants based on human contraceptives, inside 10 elephant cows
resident in Kruger National Park. Typically there was an unforeseen
complication of meddling with nature, as the oestrogen overload made
the cows seem to be on heat permanently. Unsurprisingly this
encouraged the constant unwanted attention of elephant bulls. The
'girls' were in a state of continual false oestrus and the bulls
would not leave them alone!

Experiments with vasectomies on bull elephants have also been tried
but it takes a whole day to sterilise one elephant. Well who'd have
thought it? Limiting access to water is another way being considered.
Apparently Kruger National Park has a number of artificial watering
holes. However, preventing elephants from reaching water seems an
almost impossible task, bearing in mind their powerful instincts for
finding water, their physical strength and sheer determination. It
also seems very cruel.

It is undisputed that African elephants are destructive in a
restricted environment. An adult can eat at least 330lb of vegetation
a day and drink up to 50 gallons/190 litres of water a day. Herds can
reduce forests and bush to treeless 'deserts' of weeds, grass and
tree stumps in no time. In a natural environment they would move on
and allow the area to recover. This is not possible in Kruger Park or
any other man-made enclosure.

A decision on the culling issue is expected to be reached in October
2007. Previous culling has had to be halted because of public
outrage. Major conservation organisations are at loggerheads over the
issue and it remains to be seen who 'wins'. One thing is for sure, it
won't be the elephants.

Whatever the outcome, I make no apology for a purely emotional
reaction against this cruel and immoral solution. Even the word
solution rankles. Another way must be found. As I ended my previous
article, 'the elephant never forgets' and we will surely rue the day
if this is allowed to happen.

Websailor's Wacky Wildlife
World Archive

Websailor

08.03.07 Front Page

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