Contraception or cull for elephants

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Jonathan Clayton in Johannesburg Uprooted trees, trunks stripped of bark, trampled bushes — the Kruger National Park in South Africa is littered with the visiting cards of elephants. On the margins, dirt-poor farmers hang empty metal cans from makeshift fences ringing small plots of land in a vain attempt to protect subsistence crops from devastation. More often than not they fail. In the past decade the number of elephants in the Kruger has nearly doubled — about 14,000 are now estimated to roam freely across an area about the size of Wales. They often wreak havoc as they pass. Their population

is-growing at a rate of 5 to 6 per cent a year and the park is struggling to cope. Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the Environment and Tourism Minister, announced long-awaited measures yesterday to deal with the problem that divides the wildlife lobby. His plan included resuming culling, a controversial practice banned 11 years ago in South Africa. In an attempt to placate a powerful environment movement he emphasised that it would be the last resort if other measures, including chemical contraception, did not work. “We are adding culling and contraception to the range of management options because, based on the information that we have, it is necessary,” he said. Mr Van Schalkwyk said that the Government would consult environment groups up to May 4 before the proposals pass into law. Michelle Pickover, of Elephants Alive, a wildlife lobby group, told The Times that

no matter how the Government dressed up the proposal it still signalled an “end to the moratorium on elephant slaughter”. She said that there was no scientific evidence to support the overpopulation argument and that it was a ploy to make money by resuming the ivory trade. “Slaughtering elephants is still about — what it is always about — money. Southern Africa . . . is spearheading the lobby for the voracious and ruthless ivory trade.” However, Jason Bell-Leask, director of the Southern African office of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, welcomed the measures as a step towards an “ethical approach to the problem of elephant management”. He praised a commitment of several million rand for research into elephants’ habitat, movements and lifestyle. Opponents of culling fear that once ivory stockpiles begin to rise in southern Africa, where elephants are now plentiful and game parks generally well policed and managed, the same

countries, led by South Africa, will lobby for an end to the global ban — a move opposed strongly by countries in East Africa, where elephants face much more danger.Peter H

 

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