ban on elephant culling lifted

[jones jones]

this from our local morning newspaper ...

i live about a ninety minute drive from the addo elephant park and i am appalled that these magnificent animals are once again in the hunters sights ...

when will we ever learn?



Ban on elephant culling lifted – but only as a last resort

A NEW policy for managing South Africa‘s elephants lifts the 17-year-old moratorium on culling jumbos – but emphasises that this measure will be approved only as a “last resort.

Announcing the final norms and standards for elephant management at a briefing in Pretoria yesterday, Environment and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said his department recognised the need to maintain culling as a management option.

“But we have taken steps to ensure this will be the option of last resort, acceptable only under strict conditions.

An application to cull has to be justified in terms of a detailed application by the landowner, noting how and why the number of jumbos is in conflict with the land use. It has to explain how all other options – range manipulation, translocation and contraception – have been tried unsuccessfully. And it has to be signed off not only by the authorities, but also by a recognised elephant expert.

The new policy is the culmination of an exhaustive process involving input from a large cross-section of interested parties. It is due to be gazetted on Friday and to become effective on May 1.

Reduced to 200 animals at the start of the 20th century, South Africa‘s elephant population now stands at about 20000. The government placed a moratorium on elephant culling in 1995, following a public outcry over a cull in the Kruger National Park.

One of the biggest culls of elephant took place in the Eastern Cape when hunter Major PJ Pretorius was hired by the government to rid the Addo area of jumbos that were clashing with pioneer citrus farmers. He killed 120 between 1919 and 1920 before the cull was stopped. The park was declared in 1931 with 11 elephants left.

Professor Graham Kerley, head of the Centre for African Conservation Ecology at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, and the CSIR‘s Dr Bob Scholes, two of the country‘s jumbo specialists, who headed scientific input on the new policy, were invited by the minister to help communicate it to the media at yesterday‘s Pretoria briefing.

Speaking from Pretoria after the briefing, Kerley said the Addo Elephant National Park had been the one protected area specifically referred to by the minister as needing careful elephant management.

“It is well documented that Addo has a particularly large number of plant species, some of which are restricted to a small area in the park, and these species are under pressure from the elephants.

“But the park is expanding and the next expected land purchase step will effectively halve the density. Culling is not a necessity at this stage.

The final norms and standards also prohibit the capture of elephants from the wild for commercial enterprises “like elephant-back safari industries or circuses. Even orphan animals that cannot be rehabilitated to the wild must be released into “bona fide sanctuaries. Elephants can also not be imported or exported, limiting the jumbo resource still further for these operations.

Elephant Tourism Association chairman Greg Vogt said his organisation was satisfied with the new policy as it reflected their own thinking on the issue.

[Carolly]

Sad.........just so sad.

[jones jones]

Carolly;784900 wrote: Sad.........just so sad.


this is gonna lead to wholesale slaughter carol ... no matter what they say ... obviously the world's supply of ivory is running low ...

jj

[Bryn Mawr]

jones jones;784903 wrote: this is gonna lead to wholesale slaughter carol ... no matter what they say ... obviously the world's supply of ivory is running low ...

jj


Keep us posted on that - if culling is actually used then they need to be called on it by the international community.

[jones jones]

Bryn Mawr;784943 wrote: Keep us posted on that - if culling is actually used then they need to be called on it by the international community.


isn't there a sites thingee or something like that?

Jj

[Bryn Mawr]

jones jones;784950 wrote: isn't there a sites thingee or something like that?

Jj


I thought you might get the local knowledge we wouldn't get to hear from here.

[jones jones]

Bryn Mawr;784973 wrote: I thought you might get the local knowledge we wouldn't get to hear from here.


i will cos i am close to addo ... will keep an eye out

[Kathy Ellen]

Ahhhh JJ...that is so sad for me...I love elephants....I really hate culling animals but know that it has to be done sometimes.

[spot]

I'm completely baffled by this attitude.

The space available for the herds is limited. When protected by conservation the herd breeds on a Malthusian exponential model and its numbers have to be limited or the conservation area's ecosystem will collapse.

Assume that the very ugly super-rich can be persuaded that for $300,000 each they can personally stalk a tusker for a couple of days and blow a huge gaping wound through its brain, after which they can cut all four feet off as souvenir umbrella stands to take home. That sort of money can improve and expand the conservation area and allow a larger herd to build up.

Sell the shooting rights to the super-rich. Who knows, a few of them might even get trampled.

[Galbally]

I understand why people would get upset at the fact that it may be necessary to cull some elephants, but at the same time its also positive, is it not?, that you are dealing with a situation where there is an actual overabundant population of these majestic beasts. I would assume that there may be other avenues that could be explored like expanding the ranges that the creatures live on, perhaps across national territory to allow their range in the wild to grow again, or perhaps contraception, but its imperative that the numbers be kept in proportion to their environments ability to support them, or the entire population would be put at risk, you can't allow yourself to get too sentimental in situation like that as you could in the long run be doing far more damage.

[spot]

Tell me, could a few hundred be moved to Dublin? To live wild on the banks of the Liffey, that is.

[Galbally]

spot;785137 wrote: Tell me, could a few hundred be moved to Dublin? To live wild on the banks of the Liffey, that is.


What, down the strawberry beds or somethin? Nah, maybe in Conemarra or perhaps up in Donegal, but then why not Snowdonia, it would certainly add an element of danger to hill walking.

But seriously, I wonder given the increasing numbers whether it might be feasible to introduce some of these animals into areas where the elephant population has collapsed in Africa and other parts of the world, it would be a lot more complicated than just that, and of course you have different elephant species across the world, but in Africa at least it might be viable if there were habitats capable of sustaining them again, though of course the costs involved would be large, and its probably impractical in every way, just wondering really.

[spot]

Galbally;785135 wrote: its also positive, is it not?, that you are dealing with a situation where there is an actual overabundant population of these majestic beasts.


I must have eaten something strange earlier, I just had a wonderful vision of a return to fashion of the mighty-bosomed silk-bustled firmly-bonneted Victorian matron and what the Clifton Downs would look like on a Sunday afternoon with large groups of them moving slowly homeward after their mid-day services at the surrounding churches. I'm turning into Leonard Rossiter.

I had the same thing about Snowdonia, hill walkers rounding a bend and suddenly pressing against the rockface as yet another elephant hurtles down from a ledge hundreds of feet above and plummets past them.

[jones jones]

Scrat;785152 wrote: Sad but it is necessary I think. Elephants are very destructive to their enviornment, I have seen them knocking over trees that take decades to grow back for a few mouthfuls of food, the loss of habitat due to the encroachment of man is a major factor that should be dealt with also. But how?

JJ is it true that they cannot step over a 1.5 meter solid fence made of something like concrete? I was told that they cannot lift their front legs high enough to get over them. I can't see how it would be true.

What barriers could be used to stop them? Low voltage electricity? Do they have any elephant proof fences that are reliable and inexpensive?

In Russia they have imported American Bison to Siberia and apparently they are doing very well, I wonder how they would do in the warmer climates around the Caspian sea and other places. Maybe we could breed them to grow long hair again.




to the best of my knowledge an elephant escaping from the addo park which is close to where i live is a very rare occurance ... they pose little or no threat to the local population ...

what bothers me is that their numbers did not suddenly increase overnight ... the porblem should perhaps have been forseen earlier and an alternative found to culling ...

[spot]

but not, you feel, hunting for sport as a means of funding the park better and extending its capacity?