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A baby pink elephant was sighted in the African country of Botswana on Friday by a filmmaker for the BBC as he was filming for a wildlife documentary. The cameraman took photographs of the elephant when he noticed it in a herd of around eighty elephants in the Okavango Delta. According to experts, it is most likely an albino, an occurrence that is very rare among African elephants.

"We only saw it for a couple of minutes as the herd crossed the river", said Mike Holding, who spotted the elephant. "This was a really exciting moment for everyone in camp. We knew it was a rare sighting - no-one could believe their eyes."

"I have only come across three references to albino calves, which have occurred in Kruger National Park in South Africa," said ecologist Mike Chase, who is in charge of the Elephants Without Borders conservation charity.

"This is probably the first documented sighting of an albino elephant in northern Botswana. We have been studying elephants in the region for nearly 10 years now, and this is the first documented evidence of an albino calf that I have come across."

The ecologist said that the condition might make it hard for the animal to survive for very long. "What happens to these young albino calves remains a mystery. Surviving this very rare phenomenon is very difficult in the harsh African bush. The glaring sun may cause blindness and skin problems," he noted.

However, he added that it still might be possible for the elephant to survive, as it appears to be adapting to the condition: "Because this elephant calf was sighted in the Okavango Delta, he may have a greater chance of survival. He can seek refuge under the large trees and cake himself in a thick mud, which will protect him from the sun," Dr Chase noted.

"Already the two-to-three-month-old calf seems to be walking in the shade of its mother. This behaviour suggests it is aware of its susceptibility to the harsh African sun, and adapted a unique behaviour to improve its chances of survival."

Pictures of the elephant are on the BBC website here.

Labels: albino, botswana, elephants

(DAILY MAIL, LONDON) - When it comes to his legacy, there are a fair few elephants in the room.

But after encountering one on holiday, former prime minister Tony Blair decided to just ride it.

Looking like what can only be described as a stereotypical Brit abroad in socks and trainers, he appeared somewhat apprehensive as he rode the fearsome seven ton beast.



But afterwards he told staff at the reserve in South Africa that he had "never experienced anything like it".

Mr Blair has managed to put his work as an envoy to the Middle East aside to enjoy a week long holiday with wife, Cherie, and youngest son Leo, seven, at Ulusaba, Sir Richard Branson's private game reserve on the edge of the Kruger National Park.

The family group, who are, unusually, said to be paying their own way, have been staying in one of the resort's luxurious tree-house style Rock Lodge suites estimated to be costing them up to £1,500-a-night.



Although his work in the Middle East is unpaid, Blair is said to have earned as much as £15M from a variety of business deals and a book venture since stepping down as prime minister in June 2007.

Ulusaba's Rock Lodge is described as 'Heaven in Heaven', perched on a hill summit with magnificent views over the bush below.

Each room, which is individually designed in the colours of an African tribe, has a wrap-around balcony and plunge pool.

The reserve offers twice daily game drives, a gym and even its own spa, Aroma Boma, which offers Dominant Male and Lion Tamer treatments.

The highlight of their trip, however, was a £120 trip to the Elephant Whispers interaction centre on the banks of the Sabi River near Hazyview, where Mr Blair and his wife and son spent half an hour riding through the bush.

Before they set off, the Blairs spent a full hour closely interacting with tame elephants rescued from culling operations in the area.

Mr Blair exchanged 'trunk greetings' with the elephants and touched them behind their ears and on the soles of their feet.

He then gingerly climbed onto a ten foot high bull elephant called Tembo.

After his ride he was told that he had actually shaken the trunk of the same creature three years ago during a break at a heads-of-state conference in South Africa.

"It was a rushed meet and greet and he had other matters on his mind,' said Elephant Whispers manager Colleen Kotze.

"But this time Mr Blair had much more time to get to know Tembo, who is our oldest elephant.

"He was a culling orphan rescued from the Kruger Park by a local game reserve. But he was chased out of that reserve by wild elephants. That’s when we stepped in. We saved Tembo from certain death."

During lunch, Mr Blair quietly left the table and sat down alone to watch the elephants bathing.

"It looked like he really connected with them," said Miss Kotze. "It was a quiet reflective moment. He looked so relaxed."

Mr Blair later told staff that he had never experienced anything like it. "He was amazed that such big animals could be so calm and quiet. All you hear when you are up there is a gentle swishing as the elephants move through the bush. It’s very calming and it looked like that’s what Mr Blair enjoyed the most," she added.

Back at their five-star lodge that night the Blair family attended a bush dinner with about 30 other holidaymakers where he continued to rave about his elephant experience.

"He said it was amazing being on the back of an elephant and couldn't believe how wide it was," revealed one fellow guest.

"Leo also loved it. He was still very excited when he got back to the lodge. He said at first he was afraid that the elephant would walk all over him.

"Leo is a real little bush kid. He knows all the species. He has a passion and incredible knowledge about African wilderness.

"One day he got stung by an insect but he was completely calm, discussing what it could possibly be."

During their week-long safari the Blairs saw each of the famous Big Five and were also lucky enough to have rare sightings of wild dogs.

"Mr Blair seemed very happy and relaxed," said the guest. "It’s obvious that he loves getting out in the bush and seemed to enjoy sitting down to dinner with the other guests each night."

The lounge in the Rock Lodge, where guests relax after a long, hot day sitting in safari trucks or, if you are Tony Blair, on the back of an elephant

Labels: elephants

(SOUTH LUANGWA) - This is apparently a regular occurrence at the Mfuwe Lodge in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia.



The Lodge was seemingly built on the Elephant's traditional path through to some wild mango trees on the property.



The herd of a dozen or so elephants walk through the Lodge's Reception area at least twice a day for about 4 weeks and then sporadically for about another 3 weeks to feed on the trees.



No incidents have been reported to date!

(All images (c) Mfuwe Lodge, Zambia)

Labels: elephants

Steve and Michelle Henley have been following the progress of male tusker Mac in his annual migration from the far north of the Kruger into the Private Game Reserves of the sougth in search of a mate.

Part of BBC Radio 4's World on the Move programme, you can read the reports of this epic musth-inspired trek online on the BBC website.

We will see if we can't catch up with Steve and Michelle at the end of the series and have a chat about what is a fabulous wilderness tracking exercise.

Labels: elephants, makuleke, migration, pafuri

HOEDSPRUIT (Kruger Park Times)- In a remarkable cooperative venture between private landowners, various government agencies and a large mining company, a potential disease crisis that could have cost millions has been averted, and approximately 2,500 hectares of land can now be managed in line with the conservation objectives of the greater Kruger National Park. In the process, 68 elephant and 35 buffalo have been removed from Foskor mine and returned to the greater Kruger system.

In a few short months, in excess of eight kilometres of game proof fencing has been erected on the state farms of Doreen, Rhoda and Sheila, which lie on the northern bank of the Olifants River. This has created an area where wild animals are free to roam between the Kruger National Park (KNP) and Balule and Klaserie Private Nature Reserves, and cross forwards and backwards over the Olifants River, without posing a disease threat to domestic animals.

The three farms had previously been zoned for agriculture, and some land was leased out to individuals who grazed cattle in the area. According to chief state veterinarian Dr Dewald Keet, “An outbreak of corridor disease had drawn attention to the area. One of the lessees, Piet du Plooy, had lost sixteen cattle to this disease earlier this year. Corridor disease only occurs when grazing is shared by buffaloes and cattle.”

An initial aerial survey revealed 72 buffalo and 92 elephants on the farms Doreen and Rhoda, mingling in with Foskor’s mining activities in the area. A plan was put forward to cull these buffalo, as they were free to move up the Selati River spreading diseases like foot and mouth to the domestic cattle in the Namakgale area outside Phalaborwa.

A previous outbreak of foot and mouth on the western boundary of Kruger is estimated to have cost the state R93 million in direct costs. The proposed cull sparked concerns with the management of Balule Private Nature Reserve, who felt that this was not a sustainable solution as more buffalo were likely to cross the river, necessitating further culling. This was borne out when a later aerial survey found 186 buffalo and 110 elephants in the same area.

Several stakeholder meetings then ensued between provincial nature conservation officials, state veterinary authorities, Foskor mining company, private individuals and the department of land affairs. The department of land affairs was involved as the land in question is subject to a land claim. It was agreed that a suitable fence in the correct location would help curb the disease threat, while allowing the game to remain in the area.

The eight kilometres of fencing was jointly erected by land affairs and Foskor mining company. Cattle grids were also installed. Foskor spent in the region of R300,000 to erect their portion of the fence, despite the fact that the wild animals had never created any problems with their mining activities in the area and were not otherwise affecting their main interest in the land, their mining rights.

The fence has significantly reduced the amount of land where lessee Piet du Plooy can graze his cattle on the farm Rhoda. When the fence was almost complete, the department of agriculture helicopter was brought in. Over several days of extreme flying conditions, they were able to chase 68 elephant and 21 buffalo out of Foskor’s mining areas onto the other side of the fence, where they effectively became part of the greater KNP complex.

A further 14 buffalo were immobilised and relocated south of the fence. Dr Keet reports, “Fortunately the larger portion of the buffalo population was already south of the newly erected fence line at the time of the chase-back.” However, 11 buffalo and 3 elephant somehow managed to find their way back onto the wrong side of the fence after fencing operations were completed.

Due to the fence breaking nature of elephants, and in the spirit of cooperation that the fencing exercise was carried out, representatives of the Balule Private Nature Reserve have previously committed themselves to help maintain the section of fence erected by the department of land affairs.

Labels: balule, buffalos, culling, elephants

HOEDSPRUIT (Kruger Park Times)- A Giant has fallen.

The mighty elephant bull died in the Mponda block of the Kruger Park. Rangers found his carcass during a routine foot patrol on 7 November 2006 even before the vultures discovered it.



Section ranger David Manganye reported that Masbambela had been seen shortly before his death and there are no indications of foul play. From the field signs around his body, it appears that Masbambela went down and for some time struggled to get up before finally passing away.

Masbambela’s tusks have been sent to the ivory store at Skukuza.

His left tusk was a whopping 2.64 metres long whilst his right tusk was slightly shorter at just over 2 metres. Both tusks were almost half a metre in circumference.

His tusks are thought to be the second largest set sported by an elephant in the Kruger Park, with Duke having the most impressive ivory of all the elephants currently living in the Kruger Park.

Masbambela was not well known to tourists, as he spent most of his time west of Shingwedzi. Even Kruger’s elephant expert, Dr Ian Whyte, had only seen him a couple of times, usually from the air during the annual census.

However, David Manganye reported that this year Masbambela started spending more time in the vicinity of his ranger post, and that between himself and the rangers they usually spotted Masbambela about once a week.

Masbambela means ‘one who can stand his man’. He was named after former section ranger Ben Pretorius who worked as a section ranger for more than 35 years. For more than 20 of these 35 years, Ben worked in the Shingwedzi and Punda Maria sections where Masbambela also made his home. Ben was well known by his staff for his physical strength and ability to work hard, resulting in his nickname of Masbambela.

Ben Pretorius was involved in the planning and development of the Wilderness Trails in the Kruger Park, and almost single-handedly built the Napi Trails Camp. He took early retirement in 2001 when the park was restructured, and passed away in 2002.

by Lynette Strauss, Kruger Park Times

Labels: elephants, northern kruger, ranners, shingwedzi, tusker

Wow!!! What a month it has been!!!

Despite (or maybe because of) the incredibly, dry and hot conditions the game activity and viewing has surpassed any other month we have had this season!

Temperatures have started soaring into the high 30’s and low to mid 40’s for weeks on end with only the occasional threat of thunderstorms, not forthcoming.

While hot gusts of wind and dust-devils send waves and columns of parched topsoil and ash skyward in an attempt to coax tears from the threatening Cumulonimbus clouds, all await the much needed relief expectantly.

Blessed with the cleanest river in Kruger, the Levuvhu, at least surface water offers some compensation in slaking thirsts and endowing the immediately surrounding vegetation with a cool green cap, appreciated by both beast and man.

Due to this, just a short stroll along the banks of the Levuvhu enables us to be privy to an unprecedented diversity of species and their respective interactions.

Following are some accounts of our experiences in the far north of the Kruger...

As to be expected for this time of the season, a multitude of elephant are present on the concession utilising the almost dozen natural fountains and Levuvhu River.



Fever-trees and other Acacia species are hardest hit during this period as each adult pachyderm consumes 175-250kg of vegetation, daily!!! Walking through any of the fever-tree-forests along both Limpopo and Levuvhu rivers, dramatically demonstrates the history of the “battle of the trunks”. Heavy utilisation has offset vertically orientated yellowy-green barked trunks with almost as many horizontal ones.

Quite a few “arrivals” on the birding front provided for some excitement.

European and Carmine Bee-eaters, Broad-billed Rollers, Spurwinged goose, African- Redchested- Klaas’s and Diederik Cuckoo. We were also treated to a Bat hawk circling above our heads while witnessing a spectacular sunset and rising full-moon over Lanner Gorge.

As far as reptiles go, things are becoming quite active! Mambas, spitting-cobras, green-snakes, pythons and boomslang have regularly been seen.

On one particular morning, in camp, we noticed a small Mozambican Spitting Cobra heading towards one of the massive Nyala-berry trees. As it was scaling the trunk, there was a brief encounter with a seemingly slightly larger, Natal Green-snake. Some of the guests saw the cobra delivering a lightning bite which resulted in the green-snake’s death.

As we stood watching, the cobra closed in on its prey and seemed to “measure” it prior to, starting at the head, swallow it!!! Aghast, we observed the rhythmical contractions as the cobra “walked” its fangs alternating left and right along consuming the green-snake.

With all the attention, the cobra retreated into a small burrow under the roots and disappeared. We all left the scene and were still trying to “digest” what we saw, when 5 minutes later the cobra emerged from its hide-out and proceeded to regurgitate the whole green-snake, and then leaving it there, moved away at a leisurely pace.

Did we disturb it? Not likely as it swallowed it while we were watching after which we departed.

Were its eyes larger than its stomach? Possibly as the green-snake did appear to be slightly longer than its predator. An unresolved mystery.

BIG FIVE

How much closer?... Is it safe?... Do you think they will make an attempt to take down one of the buffalo?... What if they see us?....

These were some of the questions rushing through our thoughts, perched atop a steep bank of the Levuvhu whilst watching a herd of 200+ Buffalo cross from South to North with two lionesses paying close attention to their every step.

The day started with a departure from camp at 04h30 in the morn.

Our mission was to cover the 15-18km from Mangala (60min drive from camp) to Crook’s Corner along the Levuvhu, on foot.

As the sun’s head appeared through the massive grove of Ana-trees, we departed on our sojourn and within 30 minutes encountered the first breeding-herd of ele. Making some adjustments to our route we managed to view and pass the eles without incurring their awareness of our presence.

The day was warming exponentially as we were approaching a regular sighting-hot-spot along the river.

Cupping our hands to training our ears, a rush of splashing hooves up ahead, warned us of the herd of buff crossing the river. With a quick assessment of the wind, cover and escape-routes we moved ahead cautiously to position ourselves on the high Northern bank of the river.

Perfectly placed in a little enclave and well hidden by thick shrubs we were safe and had a spectacular view of mothers with calves and towards the back some very large bulls, hesitantly walking through the foot-deep water. Sitting down to not get seen by the buff we got comfortable and revelled in the spectacle.

“There is a lion!!!”- pointing across the river someone has spotted a lioness stealthily slinking along the southern bank, her eyes fixed on the buffalo. “Ssshhhh! Sit absolutely still and don’t make any unnecessary movement or noise! We don’t want her to become aware of our presence as this will spoil the whole affair!”.

As everyone settled down, ”There’s another one!!!!”- “Sssshhhh!”. Two lionesses on the hunt and we are witnessing all of this without the comfortable safety of a vehicle!!!

By now some of the buff have crossed to our side and started walking and grazing quite close to where we were sitting! As the wind was in our favour still, we remained and by moving we would alert the lions and spoil a potential meal.

Although we were basically surrounded by buffalo and had 2 lionesses about 60m from us, we were not in any danger from the buff as being seated on the steep bank, we could just drop 2m down onto a safe ledge and the lions were on the opposite bank with more than enough space and escape-routes.

Suddenly we saw lioness go into stalk-mode! A waterbuck bull was standing on the bank under a Natal-mahogany tree, oblivious to their presence.

Slowly she edged forward but the bull became suspicious and moved off, then not 5 minutes later a huge Nyala-bull appeared on the bank and the other lioness started stalking!

Our anticipation reached breaking-point when she surged forward, not 15m from the bull! It was like watching a National Geographic documentary! A mixed sigh of disappointed relief escaped from everyone as the Nyala bolted off leaving the lioness in the dust! Wow!!!

Again their attention returned to the buff.

By now the front-line of bovids have passed within 15m of us and ended up catching our scent as they wandered down-wind from our hide. Uncertain of our exact location they started bundling together and snorting made a hasty retreat to thence they came.

Running 30m, they settled down and started returning as if they were in denial only to smell us again. This time they thought it wise to cross back over the river, straight back to the lionesses now observing from the shade of a cluster of Large Feverberries.

We lost visual contact with the lions as they skulked away further from the bank, no doubt looking for any opportunity to make a meal of one of the calves.

I felt bad that our presence had caused the alteration of the herds’ route but due to circumstances it was prudent to remain hidden rather than expose ourselves, besides how often are you presented with an opportunity to bear witness to something of this magnitude with a rifle rather than a remote in your hand?!!!!

Continuing our Eastward press we encountered another herd of 200+ Buff, 4 separate herds of Ele (one herd surprised us during a water-break!), a few Ele bulls, a Nyala killed by a Leopard and a Narina Trogon! Not an average afternoon stroll!!!

On subsequent trails again, we met with numerous Eles, Buff and another 2 lion sightings!

From the vehicle a few Leopard encounters were had and although not due to a lack of trying, the Pel’s Fishing Owl escaped us this month.

On one afternoon after a week of increasing humidity and 43◦C, a Cumulonimbus cloud built up into a massive thunderstorm which shed not a single drop on our camp (Limpopo-side) but poured 38mm on the Levuvhu side!

The subsequent disparate growth is remarkably noticeable as shrubs in blossom turned the barren landscape into a tapestry of yellows, whites and purples with concomitantly abundant fragrances!!!

I am really looking forward to return and keep track of all the floral development and the resultant effects such a localised deluge will have on the distribution and utilisation by various species.

Click here for details of the Kruger2Canyons.com Northern Wilderness Walking Safari.

Stay tuned for the next update from Paradise...

Labels: crooks corner, elephants, levuvhu, luvhuvhu, makuleke, northern kruger, northern wilderness walking safari, pafuri, trails, updates, walking trails

JOHANNESBURG- Two Kruger National Park elephants "had to be killed" after a group of 15 wandered out of the park through a section of broken fence, a KNP spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The group of 15 adolescent bulls got out recently through a section of fence believed to have been damaged by people stealing parts of it, and wandered onto land adjoining the park, Raymond Travers told the South African press.

Under the law, the owner of the land on which wild animals are found becomes responsible for the animals- in this case the Limpopo government, he explained.

"They [the Limpopo government] reacted and asked us for help," he said. "Only then can we intercede."

At the time, officials were in a helicopter doing work related to buffalo in the park. The helicopter was diverted to the task of returning the elephants.

Travers said it was unusual for 15 bull adolescent elephants to be together, as they usually moved alone.

Park officials managed to drive all but two back into the park.

"The two just seemed to be stubborn," he said.

Because of their proximity to a nearby settlement the remaining two elephants were killed. When the elephants got out of the park, women living in the area were reportedly afraid of being trampled to death when they went to fetch firewood and water.

"We believe that only once one of us has been trampled will the government start doing something," said Madali Maswanganyi, complaining that authorities were doing little to protect them from the elephants.

Travers warned that the fence, meant for disease control, was "in a bad way at the moment" and that elephants may get out again.

He said a committee of park officials and provincial government representatives were holding meetings to discuss the matter.

Labels: elephants, escaped animals, rangers

HOEDSPRUIT (Kruger Park Times)- A 40-year old motorist and three children all sustained minor injuries when an elephant bull overturned their vehicle in the Kruger National Park (KNP) on Friday April 8th.

The incident occurred at about 10h45 between Phalaborwa gate and Letaba camp. An eyewitness said that the people in the car had been watching the elephant from a distance with their car switched off.

The elephant then advanced on the vehicle, and before the driver could drive off the elephant attacked the vehicle between the driver’s door and the bonnet. It then overturned the car. The elephant was driven off by other tourists in the area hooting at it.

Park rangers instigated a helicopter search but could not find the bull.

Kruger’s executive director Dr Bandile Mkhize said, “A few incidences of elephant aggression have been reported recently in the park and we would like to advise tourists to be extra careful when they are at an elephant sighting in order to avoid incidents such as this one.”

by Melissa Wray, Kruger Times

Labels: elephants, hoedspruit, letaba, Phalaborwa, rangers

LONDON — The South African government has postponed a controversial proposal to resume culling elephants from Kruger National Park where overcrowding is causing problems, a leading conservation scientist said.

The proposal last year from the national parks authority to end a 10-year ban had outraged many conservationists who said it was unnecessary.

"They listened to our arguments and have agreed to postpone the cull, but we don't know for how long," said Rudi van Aarde Wednesday. "We want at least three years for more research."

Van Aarde, on a brief lecture tour of Britain, is professor of conservation ecology at the University of Pretoria and a member of a panel of scientists set up to advise the government on the proposed cull.

The SANParks proposal could have meant removing thousands of elephants from the 12,500 in the sprawling park, where the optimal number had been set at 7,000 for about 30 years.

In the years before the ban, more than 14,000 elephants had been culled to keep numbers around 7,000.

A spokesman for the South African Environment Ministry denied any specific figure had been considered, and said consultations on a range of options were still under way.

The elephants have been accused of damaging large sections of the park because they bring down trees and crowd around watering holes placed for the convenience of tourists.

"Remove the artificial watering holes and the elephants will resume their natural behavior of seasonal migration, giving places they have left a chance to recover," van Aarde told a briefing organized by the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

He also discounted a problem with the people who live around the park's borders, noting that population density was very low to the north of the park.

But in place of parks such as Kruger- which stretches along the border with Mozambique- van Aarde proposed creating a vast multinational conservation region.

The proposed area runs north of a line across South Africa from the south of Kruger to southern Namibia up to a line crossing from southern Angola to northern Mozambique and taking in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi on the way.

This area already contains 116 million people and 270,000 elephants, he said.

Seven large parks within the conservation area would house "metapopulations"- a concept meaning isolated populations of animals which occasionally intermingle.

Not only would this relieve the environmental pressure on restricted game parks like Kruger, but it would also promote biological diversity and could help animal populations to cope better with effects of global warming such as droughts.

"Biodiversity conservation is the concept," van Aarde said, admitting it would be hard to persuade eight national governments to participate in the plan.

Labels: conservation, contraception, culling, elephants

JOHANNESBURG- The Kruger National Park wants to shoot up to 6,000 elephants as part of a national culling programme that could start next winter.

Thousands of elephants in other state and private reserves around the country will also be culled, if a South African National Parks (SANParks) report on elephant management submitted to Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk is endorsed by the public.

Van Schalkwyk said this week that culling— stopped more than a decade ago, mainly because of local and international opposition— had been approved by the Cabinet as a solution to growing elephant numbers.

“I would rather not do culling, and this is the view of the government as well. But there comes a time when not doing anything is not good enough,” he said.

A recent census in Kruger recorded close to 12 500 elephants in the park itself, and there are about 2,000 more living in private reserves on the park’s western boundary.

According to SANParks figures, the Kruger population is increasing at 7% a year and could reach 20,000 by 2012. If the culling plans are approved, culling could start in the middle of next year— the cooler winter months being the most suitable.

Before Kruger closed its abattoir in Skukuza in 1995, its annual culling programme aimed to keep the elephant population at about 7,500. SANParks officials are loath to discuss figures now, but scientists working with the organisation say high-ranking officials still support the original “carrying capacity” figure and are known to want to almost halve the present population over a number of years.

In its report to Van Schalkwyk, released last week, SANParks avoided mentioning the park’s “carrying capacity”, but referred to a management plan drawn up in 2000 by scientists that divided Kruger into six zones.

This plan recommended culling between 400 and 1,000 elephants a year over five years. In zones of envisaged “low impact”, elephant numbers would be reduced; in “high-impact” zones around the central section of the park, numbers would be left to fluctuate.

“We envisage that in those areas where maximum population management will be needed we will be looking at a reduction level of about 7% annually, a figure which will be revised year on year,” David Mabunda, chief executive of SANParks, said in response to M&G questions last week. At current numbers, this would mean culling up to 900 elephants in the first year.

Mabunda denied the plan was to get rid of 6,000 elephants. “It is irresponsible and untrue because SANParks has not put a figure on numbers of elephants that need to be culled in the national park. The issue of numbers is one that is often miscommunicated to the public, resulting in several unnecessary misunderstandings.”

SANParks says in its report to Van Schalkwyk that culling is needed to conserve biological diversity in protected areas and support sustainable use of natural resources for the benefit of communities.

Communities would be involved in processing carcasses, canning plants and butcheries, and in carving tusks and bones, elephant hair products and other by-products.

Van Schalkwyk announced on Tuesday that national guidelines for elephant management would be drawn up by early next year and published for public comment. The national framework will be adapted to the individual needs of different national, provincial and private reserves.

There were about 17,000 elephants in South Africa’s 80 nature reserves and “some commentators suggest [this] is at least double the carrying capacity”, he added.

Critics, including scientists who formerly favoured culling but now reject it, have questioned the accuracy of SANParks figures and the impact SANParks says elephants have on biodiversity.

“While the concept of a static carrying capacity within a dynamic environment has no scientific basis, the idea that Kruger can only support a population of 7,000 elephants has nevertheless become deeply entrenched within the minds of the general public,” Michelle Henley of the Associated Private Nature Reserves, on the western border of the Kruger, recently wrote for an international NGO called Save the Elephants.

She said misconceptions were being fuelled by statements such as “there is an overpopulation of elephants” or “elephants have exceeded their carrying capacity. The majority of scientists do not agree with these perceptions.”

Scientists attending a workshop in Johannesburg in July said the impact of elephants on biodiversity should not be considered in isolation. Factors such as the closing of waterholes in the Kruger, fire and the impact of other browsers such as impalas had to be taken into account.

Where elephant numbers had to be reduced, the workshop concluded, there were alternatives to culling such as expanding parks, elephant “corridors” between reserves, translocation and contraception. Van Schalkwyk said he was considering these non-lethal reduction methods.

Click here for the original article.

Labels: contraception, culling, elephants, SANParks, van schalkwyk

HOEDSPRUIT (Kruger Times)- Laparoscopy, or keyhole surgery, is now a common medical procedure – but not when carried out on elephants. Four free-ranging male elephants from Makalali Private Game Reserve near Hoedspruit entered the history books when they underwent laparoscopic surgery to remove a 5cm section of their vas deferens– an elephant-sized vasectomy.

This is only the second time that the procedure has been carried out on live elephants, and the surgical team are continually refining their technique to decrease logistical problems and operating time. In future, vasectomies may be a means of controlling elephant population growth, especially in smaller reserves (Makalali is a "mere" 30,000 hectares in size).

The operation was carried out by a team of wildlife specialists, including Catchco vet Douw Grobler (formerly of the Kruger National Park and Walt Disney’s Animal Program vets Mark Stetter and Dean Hendrickson, a leader in the field of animal laparoscopy.

Innovative equipment is needed for this cutting-edge surgery, including specialised intubation equipment for elephant sized airways to ensure the lightest possible anaesthetic. The elephant is kept standing during the operation with a combination of slings and splints, the splints allowing the animal to support some of its own weight. The slings are slackened periodically throughout the operation to ensure good blood flow in the legs.

While grabbing and cutting tools in the laparascope find their target 60cm deep in the elephant’s side, a second team is cleaning and preparing the other side of the elephant for a quick snip in his other testicle. The equipment requires only an eight centimetre long cut. Once the procedure is complete on both sides, the elephant’s anaesthetic is reversed and he is free to roam again. Satellite collars have been fitted to keep track of the now-sterile bulls.

Catchco wildlife specialist JJ van Altena has said that in nine months to a year the elephants will have their collars removed, and scans will be performed as a follow up.

The procedure was carried out on Makalali not as a means of controlling the size of the population on the reserve, but to test the practicality of the exercise for future use. The 70-strong elephant population on Makalali is already intensively monitored as another form of contraception is in use there. The majority of the elephant cows are prevented from getting pregnant by a vaccine known as PZP, which uses the animal’s own immune system to prevent sperm fertilising eggs.

The PZP programme on Makalali is the longest running project of its kind on free-ranging elephants, with some cows having spent five years on the contraceptive. This year a number of animals will not receive their annual dose of contraceptive to observe the rate of reversal of the vaccine.

Makalali’s head of the immuno-contraception programme, Audrey Delsink, has said that although researchers are trying to source alternative methods of elephant contraception, so far PZP seems to be one of the most effective methods.

by Lynette Strauss, Kruger Times

Labels: conservation, contraception, culling, elephants, makalali

The great elephant herds of the Kruger National Park, under threat of culling, are migrating in growing numbers across the border into Mozambique's adjacent Limpopo Park.

Flying by helicopter over Limpopo Park last Friday, we could see several herds and single bulls moving through the bush that had formerly been denuded of game by Mozambique's protracted war and by serving as a coutada, or hunting ground, under earlier Portuguese colonial rule.

Also on the helicopter flight, sponsored by South Africa's Peace Parks Foundation, was an excited Dr Markus Hofmeyr, head of Kruger's veterinary wildlife services.

He believes that the elephants are signalling each other that it is safe to return to their old stomping grounds in the Mozambican area now that the war is over and it no longer serves as a hunting place or as a "bush meat" abattoir for guerrilla fighters.

This is a remarkable change from four years ago, when most of the first group of 25 elephants, which were symbolically handed over to Mozambique by former president Nelson Mandela to start repopulating their park, made a dash back to the safety of Kruger.

Most found openings in the high-security fence at river crossings, but Hofmeyr says one bull trundled for many kilometres along the fence until he was able to round it where it meets the Limpopo River border in the far north.

Other game, notably giraffe, buffalo, wildebeest, impala and kudu, have joined the elephants in crossing from Kruger through gaps in the fence, mostly at river crossings.

From the helicopter, fair numbers were spotted moving about in the unspoilt and beautiful Mozambican terrain of high-cliffed river gorges, valleys and rolling hills.

Hofmeyr says they, too, have probably been taking their cue from game translocated over the past two years by truck from Kruger into a 30,000 hectare enclosure in the Mozambican part to get them used to living on that side of the security fence.

The translocation of 3,000 head of game should be completed this year, and the enclosure will then be opened at the furthest point away from Kruger for the animals to start making their own way into their new country.

Professor Willem van Riet, chief executive of the Peace Parks Foundation, says the voluntary migration to Limpopo Park shows that translocations can work in the short term if done effectively. It is the small translocated groups that are enticing the others across the border.

Only a relatively small portion of the high-security border fence separating the two parks has been removed since they were ceremonially joined together two years ago, with, in name only, Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou Park.

Together they are called the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park but the actual link-up across the Limpopo River with Gonarezhou in troubled Zimbabwe will take a while longer.

Security concerns, especially about illegal immigrants and the smuggling of weapons and four-wheel-drive vehicles, have been hindering the removal of more sections of the border fence between the Kruger and Limpopo parks.

But control systems are now in place that will make it easier to proceed with the removal of more sections of the fence, which was put up in the mid-70s at the height of the regional conflict that also involved apartheid South Africa.

The migration of elephants into Mozambique will relieve some of the pressure on Kruger where their burgeoning numbers have been causing serious harm to the habitat. But it is unlikely to stave off culling.

The elephant population has simply gone too far out of control since a moratorium was placed on it in 1995. Kruger has about 13,000 elephants, and its maximum carrying capacity is set at about 7,000. Limpopo Park can at most take 3,000.

At a million hectares it is half the size of Kruger and an even bigger percentage of it is not suitable elephant habitat. So soon it, too, will be under pressure if Kruger's elephants keep migrating.

A final decision on culling, already building into a major bone of contention among animal-rights groups internationally, should be taken some time this year by Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the environmental affairs and tourism minister.

Meanwhile, the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park's elephant migration should serve as encouragement for southern Africa's transfrontier-park programme, in which the Peace Parks Foundation is playing a major facilitating role.

According to the 2002 African Elephant Status report of the World Conservation Union, the estimated population for southern Africa - South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and Swaziland- now stands at 300,000.

Botswana has by far the worst problem, with an estimated 120,000 elephants in its Chobe Reserve and Okavango Delta.

This article is from the Sunday Argus online.

Have a look at the debate on Elephant culling on the Kruger2Canyons.com Discussion Board.

Labels: elephants, game relocation, great limpopo park, greater limpopo park, mozambique, transfrontier park

Note that the Discussion Board offers some international coverage and reaction to this important topic in the General Discussion section

LAOHU VALLEY RESERVE- South Africa may cull elephants for the first time in a decade, a move animal welfare groups say is cruel and unacceptable but which may be needed to control a surging population.

"We are strongly leaning towards culling and we want the public to digest this hard fact," Hector Magome, director of conservation services for South African National Parks, told Reuters in an interview.

"There is a consensus that we need to reduce the population now in the short term while we look at long-term solutions."

He said a decision should be made by October.

His comments are the clearest so far to indicate conservation officials may push for culling. They have worried for years about how to prevent elephant herds growing and many see it as the only effective solution.

No longer free to roam, elephants can wreak havoc in their restricted terrain, destroying large areas of trees and making survival hard for other animals they share their space with.

But culling would be sure to provoke strong protest from animal welfare groups worldwide who argue that elephants are intelligent and emotional animals and the practice is cruel.

Before South Africa stopped culling in 1994, scenes of it shown on television provoked an outcry at home and abroad.

Culling typically involves the herding and then shooting of whole family groups -- a practice even supporters say is highly unpleasant.

But biologists say South Africa's flagship Kruger National Park is in crisis because of rising numbers of the world's largest land mammal, which can eat up to 170 kg (375 lb) of vegetation a day.

Roughly the size of Israel, the Kruger is enclosed and its elephants are gradually eating themselves out of house and home. Other species are suffering as a result.

Since culling was halted under a moratorium when apartheid ended in 1994, the park's elephant population is estimated to have swelled to close to 12,000 from around 7,000.

"We are going to publish four proposed options in the government gazette in April and invite public comment on them," Magome said.

"We hope to have the final elephant management plan approved by the environment minister by October."

He said the first option was culling, the second was relocation, and the third was contraception.

The fourth would involve a combination of culling in larger parks and contraception in smaller ones.

"For contraception to work in Kruger, we would need to put 4,000 sexually active females on the pill," he said -- a policy that was effectively being ruled out on grounds of costs and practicality.

Relocation remained an option but the number of places that could take the animals was dwindling, with smaller reserves also facing elephant overpopulation.

Note that the Discussion Board offers some international coverage and reaction to this in the General Discussion section

Labels: contraception, culling, elephants

SKUKUZA- An elephant has killed a ranger in the Kruger, a rare fatality for those who work among dangerous animals in the reserve, the park said on Wednesday.

The park said in a statement that field ranger Wilson Ndlovu was killed on Tuesday morning while on a bicycle patrol.

It gave no details of the attack but said the area was surrounded by two-metre-high grass and the rangers wouldn't have seen the elephants "until the last possible moment".

Rangers in the park are typically armed with heavy-calibre rifles in case they are charged by big game, which in the Kruger includes elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard- or in case they are confronted by heavily-armed poachers.

Park spokesman William Mabasa said Ndlovu and another ranger who survived the incident had come across a pair of adult female elephants and one attacked for no apparent reason. Neither animal had calves, ruling out an aggressive defence of young. "It doesn't happen very often ... In the five years I've been here we've had no fatal attacks on rangers," Mabasa said.

Labels: elephants, rangers

HOEDSPRUIT (Kruger Times)- Mabarule, one of the few distinctive huge elephant bulls of the Kruger National Park, has died. Section Ranger Johann Oelofse and his team found the carcass on November 11. They estimate he had been dead for four to six days.

The elephant was one of the ‘new’ heavy tuskers in the Park and had often been photographed at the Malopenyana windmills near the turn-off to the Makhadzi picnic spot north of Letaba.

He frequented the Mooiplaas section and was named after Mr Oelofse, bearing his Tsonga name Mabarule meaning ‘Big Foot’.

It appears Mabarule died of natural causes.

by Lynette Strauss, Kruger Times

Labels: elephants, letaba, tusker

LETABA (Kruger Times)- The Letaba Elephant Museum hopes to have installed an exciting new exhibit by the end of this year; a complete elephant skeleton. The bones are currently being prepared at the University of the North, where they have to dry out before they can be mounted.

Museum personnel have wanted to upgrade the displays for some time and enlisted the aid of field rangers to find a suitable skeleton. Along with the skeleton, all the posters in the museum will be redone to provide the most up-to-date information on elephant behaviour, reproduction and population dynamics. Research and management policies will be included in the new exhibits.

To house the new information, the display area will be extended by removing an existing partition wall. A large mural will be painted on the southern wall, illustrating the lifecycle of elephants. More interactive exhibits are planned, that will allow children and other visitors to the museum to touch the displays.

Films will still be shown from Monday to Saturday at 19h00, and a lounge section will be added where visitors can relax. Coffee, magazines and books will be available.

The big draw card for many of the visitors, the ivory of the "Magnificent Seven", will remain in the museum, but additional information will be provided on 20 living elephants, whose tusks are shaping up to rival those of Mafunyane and Phelwane. Visitors to the park can help contribute to this information through an upcoming photographic competition that is looking for visitor photos of any elephant with substantial ivory.

Mandleve's tusks, thought to be the heaviest tusks ever found, will also be brought from Skukuza and included in the display.

The Letaba Elephant Museum is part of the Goldfields Environmental Centre, and was built in 1993. It is located in Letaba camp, in the heart of mopane veld, where both breeding herds and itinerant male elephants roam. The original artwork and displays were mainly designed and executed by Rob Wishart, with help from Robin Kearny and Jack Swanepoel.

The museum's aim is to create public awareness of the elephant's role in the environment, but is also responsible for ongoing environmental education. School groups visit the museum and are given educational talks by the staff, covering pollution, animal diversity, ecology and the history of the park.

by Melissa Wray and Lynette Strauss, Kruger Times

Labels: elephants, letaba, rangers, tusker

BERG-EN-DAL- South Africa is weighing the option of killing off its excess elephants, 10 years after the practice known as culling was banned amid pressure from animal rights activists.

"It (culling) remains an option," David Mabunda, the head of South African National Parks (SANParks), saids on Thursday on the sidelines of a three-day conference on controlling elephant populations in the Kruger National Park.

He added other options, such as contraception, were also being considered and several approaches need to be taken. South Africa imposed a moratorium on culling in 1994.

Senior park officials have conceded off the record that they were leaning towards reintroducing culling- which involves killing off entire family groups at a time as survivors could become "rogues" prone to attacking humans.

Soaring elephant populations are seen as a threat to ecosystems which can only support so many of the pachyderms.

Regarded by many in the West as highly endangered, South Africa and its neighbours in fact have healthy and growing elephant populations.

And this is proving a headache as South Africa's roughly 16,000 elephants are all in enclosed areas.

BIG PROBLEMS

South African authorities maintain problems are inevitable when the world's largest land mammal reproduces at will within enclosed areas of bush.

This is even the case in the famed Kruger National Park, which is the size of Israel.

In the decade since culling stopped, Kruger's elephant population has almost doubled to close to 12,000. Adult elephants have no natural enemies and they have long lifespans.

Scientists say Kruger's population growth is unsustainable as the huge beasts are literally eating themselves out of house and home- to the detriment of other wild creatures.

"What I've seen from the naked eye ... is the total decimation of a number of big trees in the park. You don't need a PhD degree to tell you that there's an impact in terms of trees that have been felled," Mabunda said.

"We do have a serious problem in terms of numbers of overpopulation in our parks. What is important to us is to see those numbers being reduced and we need to look at options that can reduce those numbers," he said.

Kruger has been transferring live elephants to other locations but there is only so much space in a developing country with a growing and land hungry rural population.

MORAL ISSUES

Animal welfare activists say there are ethical issues involved, not least because elephants are highly intelligent, emotional and social animals -- which makes them perfect "poster creatures" for conservationists.

"Violating the rights of elephants by culling them will evoke an outburst of anger and opposition from concerned people across the globe," said Michelle Pickover of Justice for Animals.

Pressure from animal welfare activists may have contributed to the cull moratorium in 1994 when Nelson Mandela came to power as the country's first black president.

There are some conservationists who argue that that decision was based more on politics than science.

Labels: ban, contraception, culling, elephants

BERG-EN-DAL- Conservationists, scientists and animal-rights campaigners from around Southern Africa gathered on Wednesday at the start of a three-day conference to discuss ways of controlling the region's expanding elephant population.

Most countries in the continent's southern region, home to more than half of Africa's elephants, downscaled or halted their elephant culling programmes in the mid-1990s amid pressure from animal-rights groups and in the wake of a worldwide ban on the sale of ivory and strict controls against poaching.

As a result, elephant numbers have increased rapidly and to the point, some scientists insist, where the mighty animals have become a threat to their environment, the people they must share it with and ultimately themselves.

"The elephant population south of the Zambezi river has grown from 5,000 to over 200,000 in the last 100 years. With growth at around 5% per annum not slowing down, in the next 15 to 20 years we could have as many as 400 000 elephants," said Dr Dave Cumming of the University of Zimbabwe.

"This, when in 1900 people feared for the future of these animals. Now we are looking back at 100 years of successful recovery," he added.

Debate around the elephants has been characterised by sharply conflicting views and high emotion, particularly on the issue of culling.

The "Great Elephant Indaba", as the three-day event has been dubbed, is intended to provide a platform for the study of possible solutions.

But animal-rights groups have expressed concern that the outcome of the conference is predetermined and that the "mass killing" of elephants will prevail as the ultimate answer to one of the region's thorniest conservation issues.

The increase in the human population has brought about increasing conflict with elephants.

"As people take up more land, elephants are left with less and less," Cumming explained.

"Conservation managers and scientists started this morning to examine one of the various options. We have heard a recommendation for elephant meta-population management where individual elephant populations can be linked up between countries," he said.

The recommendation, he said, appears feasible in light of the implementation of a plan to establish three large transfrontier parks in the region.

Park managers have, however, noted that initial costly efforts to translocate elephant across borders -- for instance between South Africa's Kruger National Park and Mozambique -- have been hampered by, among other things, the fact that most of the elephants have simply returned.

The conference is also expected to take another look at contraceptive and sterilisation programmes as a means of controlling the population. Some scientists who have argued that tampering with the fertility of the creatures would stabilise rather than reduce the size of the population attended the meeting on Wednesday.

"The Kruger is just one example of a large park where for 26 years it was able to keep and manage an elephant population of between 6,000 and 8,000, but today it has nearly 12,000 elephants," Cumming said of the facility hosting the conference, organised by South African National Parks.

The two million hectare, internationally renowned Kruger Park is home to most of South Africa's 17,000 elephants.

The elephant population in neighbouring Zimbabwe had reached an estimated 100,000, about 28 times more than the population at the turn of the century, he said.

Although the impact of the large elephant populations on woodlands in places such as the Kruger Park is well documented- elephants have been blamed for the destruction of many indigenous trees- the exact impact of their presence in large numbers on biodiversity has yet to be determined.

Labels: berg en dal, elephants

JOHANNESBURG- South Africa's national and private parks are prepared to put elephants on the pill, re-introduce culling and send them overseas in order to reduce overpopulation.

South African National Parks, which this week admitted that the problem was "quite serious", said it would be holding a conference next month to find solutions to the problem.

The country's tourism jewel, the Kruger National Park can only accommodate 7,500 elephants but has a population of over 12,000.

Two national parks in Limpopo, Makalali and Mapungubwe (which was officially opened on Friday) also face an elephant explosion that poses a threat to biodiversity.

SANParks, which imposed a moratorium on the culling of elephants in 1995, said it might consider culling "if it is one of solutions considered to be viable".

Wanda Mkutsaqlwa, head of communications for Sanparks, said: "We have been told that elephants have the ability to re-engineer or change an ecosystem.

"Trees are being uprooted. We are losing a number of trees. Some of the animals are dependent on the trees which are eaten by the elephants."

Dr Douw Grobler, owner of a company specialising in wildlife capture, said contraception was working well with smaller elephant populations on private land.

Grobler, who managed Kruger's game capture unit for 14 years, said 350 elephants were culled during the last organised culling at Kruger in 1994

"Kruger really has a problem with the elephant population going so high. There's huge overpopulation there. They have to bring the figure down to between 8,000 and 9,000.

"Unfortunately culling is the only way they can reduce their numbers at this stage. There's no other viable method."

New ways of managing elephant numbers were discussed at a symposium in Phalaborwa last week which was attended by 140 elephant experts and others involved in elephant management.

Chairman of the Elephant Managers and Owners Association, Dr Marion Garai, said that long-term planning was needed.

Howard Blight, chief executive of Elephants For Africa Forever, which trains and tames wild elephants, said: "To retain the integrity of the habitat and have a balanced biodiversity, elephant numbers need to be reduced. It's practical and easy to introduce contraception in small reserves."

But elephant expert Rory Hensman said contraception was not the answer to the elephant problem. "Contraception won't take any elephants out of the equation. It slows population growth down but it's invariably brought in too late. If you sterilise them, you will be landing up with huge behavioural problems. The most dangerous thing is to allow the elephant population to get out of control.

"I believe that we should look at all options, including contraception, relocation and taming and training them. But, at the end of the day, if it means culling, then culling it will have to be."

Mkutsaqlwa said SANParks was willing to offer elephants to other countries but said this was an expensive exercise. "They will have to bear the costs of transportation," she said.

Labels: contraception, culling, elephants, SANParks

JOHANNESBURG- In recent years, much attention has been given to elephant poaching- and the catastrophic effects of this on herds throughout Africa. Successful conservation of elephants presents its own challenge, however, in the form of overpopulation.

In South Africa's north-eastern Kruger National Park, for example, the population of elephants is growing at seven percent annually- a trend that park officials find worrying. Herds that cannot survive in allotted conservation areas may wander into the fields and villages of adjacent communities, destroying crops and angering local populations.

Unpleasant as this is, many find a possible alternative- elephant culling- equally distasteful.

"Culling is a euphemistic word for killing elephants en masse. It can never be justified and it can never be a humane process. It may be efficient, but it can never be a kindly or instant death," Michelle Pickover of the Xwe African Wild Life Research and Investigation Centre told a meeting in Johannesburg recently.

But as Hector Magome, director of South African National Parks, observed, rangers faced with containing a group of errant elephants typically find themselves in situations where there are few good options.

"If a group of elephants breaks out of Kruger National Park, science will be thrown out of the window, and it will become a political problem," he told people at the gathering, held towards the end of last month.

The Johannesburg meeting, entitled 'The Ethics of Elephant Killing: Genocide or Sustainable Development', attracted over 50 environmentalists, conservationists and animal rights activists.

According to Hennie Lotter, chairman of the Ethics Society of South Africa, between 200 and 2,000 elephants were culled annually in the Kruger Park between 1967 and 1994. A moratorium was placed on culling soon after the post-apartheid government of Nelson Mandela was elected into office in 1994.

As a result, the elephant population in Kruger has almost doubled to over 13,000- and this number is set to rise to more than 40,000 if present trends continue. This would lead to widespread destruction of plant life in the park.

While animal rights activists fear authorities may be about to revive culling, Magome insists that no final decision on the matter has been taken.

"Right now we have no policy to cull or trans-locate elephants. We shall take the decision after holding a stakeholders' conference in October. Then, we shall present our report to the minister who will take a decision," he said.

Pending this decision, Pickover has called for the creation of policies that would accommodate both people and elephants.

"What we need to do is to develop...human-elephant conflict resolution measures, assist local communities in ways which bring real, lasting benefits to people without killing elephants - and place ivory stockpiles permanently beyond use, so there is no more incentive to trade," she noted.

"The majority of African nations, have seen their elephants depleted...by the rapacious demand for ivory. Between 1979 and 1989 alone an estimated 700,000 elephants were slaughtered," Pickover added.

Gerhard Verdoorn, director of Birdlife South Africa, said trans-location of animals and the use of contraceptives were strategies that could be employed to manage the country's growing number of elephant. The first option was not without its drawbacks, however.

"Translocation will take...years. Even if it happens, animals have a good memory. You take them elsewhere, the following day they will be back," Verdoorn noted.

Even so, Mozambique will receive 500 elephants from Botswana by the end of this year. Afonso Madope, director for conservation in Mozambique's Ministry of Tourism, was quoted by the state-owned Agencia de Informacao de Macambique in June as saying that the elephants would be relocated to Gorongosa National Park in the centre of the country.

Wildlife in Gorongosa suffered a decline in numbers in the 1980s as a result of Mozambique's 16-year civil war which ended in 1992. The park's elephant population was decimated, dropping from 7,000 in 1979 to 111 in 2001.

Contraception also appears to be a long-term, rather than an immediate solution to the problem of elephant overpopulation.

During a meeting convened by the Netherlands-based Utrecht University in March this year, delegates noted that contraceptive vaccines for female elephants had proved "effective" in limited trials - and that research into suppressing sperm production and "sexual activity" in bulls was also underway.

However, more research was needed into the "efficacy, practicality, reversibility and effect on social structure of contraceptive treatments" before contraception could be introduced in large measure.

A debate is being held amongst industry professionals on the best method to achieve a sustainable phacyderm population; see our Celendar section for details.

Labels: contraception, culling, elephants, escaped animals, game relocation