African elephants in the kruger national Park are culled on a regular basis to keep the parks population of elephants at a sustainable level. How do you feel about this practice and what are your views?
Rather keep the numbers down by culling the sick, old and injured than seeing herds of emaciated starving beasts, I would say. And a heavy-gauge bullet to a fatal point is a lot less ugly than what happens to them if they’re starving and try migrating to other areas for fodder.
Peter wrote:
Just for the record … most, if not all, game parks and reserves have culling programmes… and the culling is not restricted to elephants only.
But to get back to Peter’s question, inhumane and cruel as it may sound and be, culling is in many cases the only option these institutions have. It is ironic that in our efforts to protect African elephants from illegal pouching, we have herded them into parks and game reserves like Kruger and many others. And in doing so, we have created the very reason for the culling process. Our management of these herds of marvellous animals has been too good…
Culling is often used as a last resort… Let me demonstrate: Any takers for a 6-ton elephant bull… or perhaps a smaller cow of 4 tons? Come on… first come first serve… Did I forget to mention that takers are responsible for transportation fees to and from the Kruger to where ever you are? Any takers? Didn’t think so. Maybe I simplified the problem slightly, but the question remains: Where to take the excess numbers? There simply isn’t space for them.
I’m certainly not defending culling in any way. Just putting down my thoughts as so politely requested by Peter. The culling process, and specifically in the case of elephants, is almost a complete abomination. Why? Because when the culling starts, a whole herd is selected and the whole herd is culled: Bulls, cows, pregnant cows, young calves – not a single animal is spared. Why must the whole herd be taken out? Because the elephant herd is a complex family group, and there is a highly developed social structure in the herd. Just one elephant escaping the cull would communicate the terror and panic to other herds which would lead to a complete breakdown in social behaviour in a park.
On the bright side (if there is one) the culled animals won’t be wasted. A great deal will be recovered - ivory, hides and meat. All to be sold. The proceeds will hopefully go back into conservation and to protect parks and game reserves.
Man! What have we done?
I didn’t know that. 
But they way you describe it makes sense. I used to be involved with a shooting estate in Scotland and have experience of what happens when animals aren’t culled, but I guess deer don’t have the same social bonds as elephants – we always took out the old, sick and lame.
I have seen graphic footage of how angry African farmers deal with marauding elephants, though, and in the face of that, I still say culling is the lesser of the available evils.
I’ve been with on culling missions (not in the Kruger National Park, and not shooting anything myself), and it is never a pleasant experience. The people killing the animals are usually animal lovers who definitely do not enjoy their task.
There are not enough natural predators left on most farms, and in parks, to keep the numbers down. A large herd of elephants destroys hundreds of trees…and if there are too many of them, other animals will start to suffer too.
I once sneaked up on a few elephants making their way through the dense bush, and it’s just amazing how much they destroyed, not for food, but merely to make a path. They’re still pretty cool and impressive, though. I swear I couldn’t walk as silently as that entire herd as they passed our tents one night. The only reason I woke up is because the entire bush suddenly went deadly quiet!
Damn, I think I have lost the topic somewhere…
Thanks for your thoughts on this, I tend to agree that it is a necessary evil and as many of you pointed out, the people who do the culling never enjoy the culling process. I believe firmly that the products obtained from such a cull should be used to further the aims of conservation and this brings something else to mind, should the worldwide ban on ivory be lifted, should the ivory from such a cull for instance be sold? I’m not sure of the process, but I heard somewhere that ivory can be marked and so if all ivory from culling was marked in a unique way and sold, people could differentiate between that and other ivory obtained from poaching…
Any thoughts anyone?
Illegal ivory trade taking off
15/03/2005 13:14 - (SA)
Poachers are killing between 6 000 and 12 000 elephants a year. (Karel Prinsloo, AP)
Kenya - Poachers are killing between 6 000 and 12 000 elephants a year to supply illegal ivory markets in Sudan - to meet growing Chinese demand, an expert said on Monday.
Most of the elephants are killed in southern Sudan, Congo and the Central African Republic, with some ivory also coming from Kenya and Chad, said Esmond Martin.
Martin is one of the world’s foremost experts on the illegal ivory trade who recently conducted a study in Sudan on behalf of British-based Care for the Wild International.
Martin introduced his findings at a news conference in Nairobi that also was addressed by Nigel Hunter, director of the Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants unit of the UN organisation that regulates trade in wildlife.
Hunter said he was not directly involved in Martin’s study, but could endorse Martin’s work.
Martin said he found 11 000 ivory products on display in 50 shops in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and in nearby Omdurman. He also visited 150 ivory craftsmen making new products, much of it jewellery.
Martin extrapolated the number of elephants being killed every year - 6 00 to 12 000 - from the amount of ivory seen in Khartoum and Omduram.
It was difficult to determine what percentage that represented of the elephants in central Africa, where researchers have been unable to work for more than a decade, but Martin said he believed the killings were at an unsustainable rate for the central Africa elephant population.
Laws are being ignored
Martin said the amount of ivory on the markets appeared to be increasing, as was the number of elephants dying.
Despite international and Sudanese laws forbidding trade in ivory outside of internationally supervised sales, traders and craftsmen openly displayed and discussed the industry with Martin and his team during their research last month.
“Practically every trader we talked to said the Sudanese national army was doing the killing in southern Sudan,” Martin said. “Almost everybody we talked to said the army was the main group of people involved in the transport (of ivory from central Africa).”
The average price per kilo of quality ivory has risen from about US$45 in 1997 to US$105 now, Martin said. The average price paid in central Africa, where the elephants were killed, is US$20 a kilo, he added.
“Over 75% of all of the ivory bought in Khartoum and Omdurman on the retail side is bought by Chinese people,” Martin said. “They are not buying small quantities, they are buying huge quantities to take back home.”
There are between 3 000 and 5 000 Chinese who live and work in Sudan, mainly in the oil, mining and construction industry.
More than 50% of Africa’s elephants were killed by poachers between 1979 and 1989, when an international ban on the ivory trade was introduced.
That poaching was driven by economic prosperity in Japan, but the current increase in demand is a result of China’s growing economy, said Hunter.
Shops throughout Khartoum advertise ivory and display items in store windows, though the Sudanese government pledged last year to crack down on the trade by March 31.
Sudanese and Chinese officials were not immediately available for comment.
I got this article off a south african website and I wonder what is the ivory used for in China? is it strictly ornamental or is there some other cultural significance?
Maybe in future they can dart the females with a contraceptive so that this problem won’t arrise again! One would think they could have managed at least that in the last 10 years since the last culling!!!
[quote=“Pixie”]Maybe in future they can dart the females with a contraceptive so that this problem won’t arrise again! One would think they could have managed at least that in the last 10 years since the last culling!!!
[/quote]
Why don’t they do this? Is it possible?
sandman wrote:
I’m quite sure it’s possible, but I guess the question here is, is it advisable?
I mentioned the quite complex social structure of African elephant herds before and I think in this lies the problem. At the head of an elephant herd is the matriarch. The bulls are often nothing more than loners who have no other function than helping to produce offspring. Once they’ve completed their duty, they are shoved out and the herd continues without any further input from him. {Lucky bastards?!} The cows are responsible for raising the young and teaching them the tricks of the trade. Now, what would happen if the cows are darted with a contraceptive and they stop producing offspring? Wouldn’t this have an adverse effect on the hierarchical and social structure of things in the herd? What would happen to the matriarchal system, as perfected by elephants, if there aren’t matriarchs?
I just wonder which would be more detrimental… culling or contraception…
It’s pretty clear to me that it’s humans that need to be culled, not wildlife. :s
Stray Dog wrote:
Well said mate!
[quote=“stan”]Stray Dog wrote:
Well said mate!
[/quote]
sure, but the selection process is always biased, and tends to be troublesome.
Watching these lovely animals die so that others may live and roam freely is a catch 22. Too bad we cant cull the fucking pigeons near my house. I’m sure no one but the moron blowing his bird whistle all day will mind.
do they really have to kill the entire herd?
I was watching an episode of McGuyver (Richard Dean Anderson) where he goes to Africa with Cuba Gooding Jr. to catch some poachers and they come across a Rhino that had his horn chopped off. They had to shoot the Rhino but they left his family alone as far as I could see.
At the end of the episode he said there was only 1500 rhino’s left in da world and if we didnt do something they would be extinct by 2000 (the show aired in 1989).
culling, poaching, its all so sad…the Rhino in the show looked so sad cause da poacher had used a chain saw on his nose to get the horn off quickly…it was a good episode , they even had a Chinese dude trying to buy the horns so he could ship em to china
:fume:
Rhinos and elephants/apples and oranges.
Completely different social structure, so completely different result.
As another poster noted, contraceptives have been considered but the big question is exactly the one posed a few posts back. Barren females leading an aging herd is going to completly change the social structure of these animals.
Bachelor males have demonstrated bizarre, agressive behaviour, like targetting and killing rhinoceruses (i?) when they aren’t kept in check by older herd members.
Disrupt the normal elephant society and you’re bound to stir up unforseen problems. A cull has to include all the members of the herd.
Sad. Really.
There was a show on this, about linking national parks to allow the elephants to migrate, anyone know whether or not this is a viable option? I remember something about the time involved being too long – that is, the elephants would migrate too slowly and the parks ecosystems are being damaged by the surplus elephants.
[quote=“webdoctors”]do they really have to kill the entire herd?
I was watching an episode of McGuyver (Richard Dean Anderson) where he goes to Africa with Cuba Gooding Jr. to catch some poachers and they come across a Rhino that had his horn chopped off. They had to shoot the Rhino but they left his family alone as far as I could see.
At the end of the episode he said there was only 1500 rhino’s left in da world and if we didnt do something they would be extinct by 2000 (the show aired in 1989).
culling, poaching, its all so sad…the Rhino in the show looked so sad cause da poacher had used a chain saw on his nose to get the horn off quickly…it was a good episode , they even had a Chinese dude trying to buy the horns so he could ship em to China
:fume:[/quote]
Well that just sucks. McGuyver could easily have reattached the horn with his Swiss army knife and a convenient length of jungle vine. That really makes my blood boil! :fume:
Linking parks in close proximity so animals can migrate has its merits, the only problem is that especially in South Africa, the area between parks is well developed farmlands. So the perception of these beautiful elephants will change to rogue maurauding brutes that destroy farmers crops, break fences and so on. They will then be culled anyway.
A recent development has been the proposal to join 3 parks from three different countries to make the biggest game reserve in Africa. The Kruger national park is massive, but with the addition of a section of mocambique of similar proportions as well as the "Gonarezhou national park in Zimbabwe, well it accomplishes several things, the most immediate is that it extends the home range of the current elephant population. It also broadens their climate exposure, what I mean by this is that they have a higher chance of not suffering from drought, since one area is fed by one major river "system and the other area is fed by another. For both areas to suffer drought at the same time is less likely.
In addition the gene pool is added to, as Gonarezhou has a healthy population of elephants and there are quite a few rogue groups moving around in Mocambique. This is however a temporary measure as it will eventually reach a stage where the area is not big enough and so we will begin this debate again…