Plan to cull elephant numbers incenses animal rights groups
Tuesday February 26 2008
In a move set to ignite the wrath of conservationists worldwide, South Africa yesterday announced it would reintroduce culling for the first time since 1994 in an attempt to control burgeoning elephant numbers, which environmentalists say are threatening the country's game reserves.
Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, announced the policy reversal after a year-long review.
He declined to be drawn on how many elephants might be killed, saying only that figures of between 2,000 to 10,000 claimed by animal rights groups were "hugely inflated". He emphasised that it would be undertaken as a final resort.
Since killing elephants was outlawed 14 years ago, the number in South Africa has soared from about 8,000 to more than 20,000.
In the Kruger National Park, signs of the continent's most privileged elephant are only too visible.
Trampled thorn trees, bushes and dying roots, dried brittle by the sun, mark their route across a reserve visited by one million tourists a year.
Research in the 1990s found that the ideal "sustainable" elephant population for the Kruger would be 7,500.
Animal rights defenders threatened to call for tourist boycotts and to mount other protests.
However, wildlife experts said that the argument against culling was ludicrous. Thorn trees are favourite fodder for elephants, but eagles and vultures also like to nest in them and giraffes like to browse from above. (© The Times, London)
- Jonathan Clayton in Johannesburg
