Elephant Cull Back on the Menu in South Africa - Animal Rights Protests.

February 2008. South Africa has decided once again to allow elephants to be killed to control their burgeoning population, but has promised that there will be no wholesale slaughter. This decision reverses a 1995 ban and has drawn boycott threats from animal rights activists.

The comprehensive policy on managing and protecting elephants included a ban on capturing wild elephants for commercial purposes a move likely to draw fire from a fast-growing industry in elephant-back safaris. Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said his government was drawing up regulations for treating the 120 elephants in captivity in the country, saying his department had received numerous complaints about cruel training practices including the use of electric prodders.

The minister would give no indication how many elephants might be killed, saying only that figures of 2,000 to 10,000 being bandied about by various interest groups were hugely inflated.
‘Culling will only be allowed as a last option and under very strict conditions,' van Schalkwyk told reporters.

Elephant Population Has Doubled Since 1995
South Africa's elephant population has ballooned from 8,000 in 1995, when killing was banned under international pressure, to more than 20,000. The national parks service said that had there not been a policy of killing for population control between 1967 and 1994, the current population would have been 80,000.

South Africa is proposing culling elephants even though their population is low in other countries, elephants are classed as ‘vulnerable' worldwide, and trade in ivory has been banned since 1989 to try to combat poaching.

High Density of Elephants Impacts other Species
Van Schalkwyk said the debate was marked by strong emotions. ‘There are few other creatures on earth that have the ability of elephants to 'connect' with humans in a very special way,' he said. ‘Our simple reality is that elephant population density has risen so much in some southern African countries that there is concern about impacts on the landscape, the viability of other species and the livelihoods and safety of people living within elephant ranges.
Elephant relocation - Majete. © African Parks Network.
Elephants need to roam widely to satisfy their daily diet of about 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of grass, leaves and twigs, and they increasingly clash with people.

Canned Hunting
The new regulations, effective from May 1st, state that killing must be used along with other measures such as contraception by injection or darting, moving elephants to new areas and hunting - another controversial subject in South Africa. A new law last year banned hunting of tranquilized animals, use of bows and arrows for big predators and thick-skinned animals such as rhinos, and the use of vehicles to chase animals until they are too tired and terrified to flee.

Animal Rights Africa, based in Johannesburg, threatened to promote international tourist boycotts and protests and to take legal action. The group said killing elephants was ‘undeniably cruel and morally reprehensible.' Spokeswoman Michele Pickover argued that when elephants are killed, the herd breeds more, and other elephants move into the space the dead elephants roamed, resulting in a larger population than before the killing.

Her organization also argues that South Africa does not have too many elephants. Bob Scholes, lead author of the elephant management regulations, acknowledged to reporters that killing elephants ‘changes the way they behave,' saying it made them more aggressive. The regulations say killings should not be carried out near other elephants.

Contraception
Contraception also is fraught with problems. A female normally breeds every four years and does not mate while nursing. With contraception, a female comes on heat every four months, but does not fall pregnant, and so suffers the physical stress of frequent copulation with bulls four times her weight. Moving elephants can be prohibitively expensive.

Hunting
The era of the big white hunter in the 1900s brought Africa's elephants near to extinction, and by the turn of the century South Africa had just 200 elephants left alive. Now South Africa, Namibia and Botswana all have booming elephant populations because of their conservation efforts, while East and West African nations are struggling. Van Schalkwyk said he had discussed the new regulations with other southern African countries facing the same dilemma. Botswana has by far the largest population, with an estimated 165,000 elephants. Zimbabwe has an estimated 80,000 and Mozambique some 20,000.