A numbers game: Managing elephants

SOUTHERN Africa just had one of the wettest summers on record, turning its usual brown sunburnt landscapes into verdant green paradises.

In South Africa’s Kruger National Park, vegetation has grown thick and dried riverbeds have flooded. Wildlife haven’t had to wander too far in search of food or water.That’s great for the wildlife, but not necessarily for the 1,2 million tourists who come to the world-famous park each year expecting to spot the Big Five – lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo – that in leaner times are easily found congregating in the open around sparse waterholes.But not to fret, even in the best of conditions one can’t miss the elephants.Not only because they are the largest animal foraging around the park – not to mention the largest land animal on the planet – but because they are numerous.In fact, within the first few minutes of entering Kruger’s main gate, a large male bull is easily spotted foraging among the trees without blinking an eye at the herds of gawking holidaymakers – an indication of their high visibility and high densities in the park.”Elephants are such large and magnificent creatures,” said Dr PJ Stephenson of WWF’s African Elephant Programme, “but they also need a lot of food and freedom if they are to survive.”As elephants consume up to 200 kg of plant matter in a single day, when space is limited, as it usually is, they often come into conflict with other animal species, as well as people, who are competing for many of the same, often scarce resources.How many is too many? Kruger National Park covers an area of some 20 000km2 – about half the size of Switzerland – but it still doesn’t seem big enough to accommodate a growing elephant population.Unlike many populations in Africa which remain endangered as a result of years of poaching and habitat loss, elephants in Kruger are growing at a rapid rate.Since the park stopped culling elephants about a decade ago as a result of international pressure, numbers have gone from 7 000 to over 12 000.According to local officials, the park’s habitat can only sustain about 7 000 over a long period.Any more and it will add pressure to an already fragile and carefully managed environment.”With a natural growth rate of six to eight per cent a year, the population currently has the potential to double their numbers every decade,” said Dr Hector Magome, Conservation Services Director of South African National Parks (SANParks), the government department responsible for managing the country’s 22 national parks.”Increasing numbers of elephants are causing major changes to the vegetation of the park, destroying trees and reducing habitat available for other wildlife species.When elephant numbers go up, tree numbers go down.At what point do you want to stop that?” In the course of their foraging, elephants often strip the bark of trees of such important tall tree species as ancient baobabs, knobthorns – where birds of prey often make their nests – and marulas, whose fruit has an extremely high vitamin C content and is used to make jam, juices and alcoholic beverages like the popular South African liqueur Amarula.Rare plant species, such as the lalla palm, are also being damaged.”Marula trees are endangered due to destructive bark stripping by elephants,” said Dr Holger Eckhardt, an ecology specialist at Kruger National Park.”They can eliminate entire communities of these valuable trees in a very short amount of time.Increasing elephant numbers will cause increasing pressure on current tall tree populations.”According to aerial surveys in the park, large trees are declining by about 45 per cent in observed areas.In addition to tree loss, elephants have been blamed for breaking the park’s boundary fence and wreaking havoc on neighbouring villages, especially their crops.The broken fences also allow species like buffalo to leave the park, some carrying foot and mouth and bovine tuberculosis which infects livestock and have a negative impact on the local economy.Outbreaks of foot and mouth disease to the west of Kruger National Park have increased in recent years.Managing a recent foot and mouth outbreak cost South Africa some US$15,5 million.About 1,5 million people live near Kruger and several hundred thousand in bordering Mozambique.Because of these large population areas, there are increased concerns of rising human-elephant conflicts.There have also been reports of increased elephant attacks on tourists and personnel.”Our obligation is to manage and conserve biodiversity,” added Dr Magome.”We have to do something to manage the situation, both for the ecosystem, the people who live near the park and for those who visit it.””Ultimately, the decisions on elephant population management are all about choices of what we want.Do we want elephants to be the main asset of the park and thus manage for elephants or do we want to manage the parks for the entire functioning of the system?” To cull or not to cull Several options are currently being considered by South Africa and other southern African range states to tackle local over-population of elephants.These include range expansion through the establishment of cross-border protected areas and protection of migration corridors, translocation to under-populated areas, contraception, and perhaps the most controversial, culling – the intentional reduction of elephant populations.Each option has its advantages and disadvantages, each its costs and constraints.WWF has for years been working to establish trans-frontier conservation areas in Africa to help conserve elephant migration corridors, to reduce human-elephant conflict, and to establish community-based natural resource management programmes.The global conservation organisation has also helped establish new protected areas at the national level, as well as helped translocate elephants from South Africa to an under-populated trans-border park in Mozambique.But translocation is expensive and labour-intensive and can only help remove a limited number of “unwanted” elephants – up to only 14 at a time, according to Kruger staff.Translocating one elephant can cost as much as US$8 000.Despite the price tag, many have been taken across the border to Mozambique, but the elephants have raided the crops of communities still living in the area, and some have actually found their way back to their traditional feeding grounds in Kruger – making the whole operation ineffective.Contraception methods have also been employed over the years, but this has proven to be expensive and the park’s veterinarians say it can only stabilise populations, not reduce them.It is because of such complex challenges that elephant culling is once again being talked about to address the problems of elephant overpopulation and insufficient space in certain parts of southern Africa.Kruger, as well as other southern African parks, used to cull small numbers annually to maintain populations at levels authorities considered suitable for their environment, but stopped under strong international pressure in 1995 after populations in other parts of Africa had been decimated by decades of systematic poaching.The status of the species, however, still varies greatly across Africa.Some populations remain endangered due to poaching for meat and ivory, habitat loss, and conflict with humans, while others are secure and expanding, like in South Africa and its neighbouring countries as a result of successful management and enforcement.”No one likes killing elephants, but we have a responsibility to maintain biodiversity,” said Kruger’s Dr Whyte, an elephant specialist who has worked in the park for the past 36 years.”This is the problem with elephant culling.You have the conservation management issue to deal with, but there is the emotional side.A lot of people identify with elephants, they have family structures similar to ours; they look after each other.But in terms of conservation management of biodiversity, elephants can have a very significant impact on an environment.””We see what happens in other parks when populations explode,” he added.”We are trying to predict well in
advance before the serious damage occurs.”Anticipating an international backlash because of the sensitivity of the issue, SANParks and the South African Environment Ministry have been debating any potential cull (no decision has yet been made at the time of writing this article), taking in views from a number of stakeholders, including top scientists, academics, conservation organisations such as WWF, animal welfare groups, local communities bordering Kruger, neighbouring countries that also have large elephant populations, and many others.”We acknowledge the challenges faced by South Africa in managing its expanding elephant population and support the consultative process and attempt to take on board all points of view on this very important and complex issue before making a final decision,” said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF’s Global Species Programme.”Culling should only be considered as a last resort when all non-lethal options have been investigated and thoroughly tried and tested,” she added.”It is also vital that African elephant range states develop long-term, large-scale national and regional plans for elephant and land management that allow elephant populations to exist without danger to ecosystems and local communities.These plans should also provide benefits to local communities.”* Mark Schulman is Managing Editor at WWF International, based in Switzerland.Wildlife haven’t had to wander too far in search of food or water.That’s great for the wildlife, but not necessarily for the 1,2 million tourists who come to the world-famous park each year expecting to spot the Big Five – lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo – that in leaner times are easily found congregating in the open around sparse waterholes.But not to fret, even in the best of conditions one can’t miss the elephants.Not only because they are the largest animal foraging around the park – not to mention the largest land animal on the planet – but because they are numerous.In fact, within the first few minutes of entering Kruger’s main gate, a large male bull is easily spotted foraging among the trees without blinking an eye at the herds of gawking holidaymakers – an indication of their high visibility and high densities in the park.”Elephants are such large and magnificent creatures,” said Dr PJ Stephenson of WWF’s African Elephant Programme, “but they also need a lot of food and freedom if they are to survive.”As elephants consume up to 200 kg of plant matter in a single day, when space is limited, as it usually is, they often come into conflict with other animal species, as well as people, who are competing for many of the same, often scarce resources.How many is too many? Kruger National Park covers an area of some 20 000km2 – about half the size of Switzerland – but it still doesn’t seem big enough to accommodate a growing elephant population.Unlike many populations in Africa which remain endangered as a result of years of poaching and habitat loss, elephants in Kruger are growing at a rapid rate.Since the park stopped culling elephants about a decade ago as a result of international pressure, numbers have gone from 7 000 to over 12 000.According to local officials, the park’s habitat can only sustain about 7 000 over a long period.Any more and it will add pressure to an already fragile and carefully managed environment.”With a natural growth rate of six to eight per cent a year, the population currently has the potential to double their numbers every decade,” said Dr Hector Magome, Conservation Services Director of South African National Parks (SANParks), the government department responsible for managing the country’s 22 national parks.”Increasing numbers of elephants are causing major changes to the vegetation of the park, destroying trees and reducing habitat available for other wildlife species.When elephant numbers go up, tree numbers go down.At what point do you want to stop that?” In the course of their foraging, elephants often strip the bark of trees of such important tall tree species as ancient baobabs, knobthorns – where birds of prey often make their nests – and marulas, whose fruit has an extremely high vitamin C content and is used to make jam, juices and alcoholic beverages like the popular South African liqueur Amarula.Rare plant species, such as the lalla palm, are also being damaged.”Marula trees are endangered due to destructive bark stripping by elephants,” said Dr Holger Eckhardt, an ecology specialist at Kruger National Park.”They can eliminate entire communities of these valuable trees in a very short amount of time.Increasing elephant numbers will cause increasing pressure on current tall tree populations.”According to aerial surveys in the park, large trees are declining by about 45 per cent in observed areas.In addition to tree loss, elephants have been blamed for breaking the park’s boundary fence and wreaking havoc on neighbouring villages, especially their crops.The broken fences also allow species like buffalo to leave the park, some carrying foot and mouth and bovine tuberculosis which infects livestock and have a negative impact on the local economy.Outbreaks of foot and mouth disease to the west of Kruger National Park have increased in recent years.Managing a recent foot and mouth outbreak cost South Africa some US$15,5 million.About 1,5 million people live near Kruger and several hundred thousand in bordering Mozambique.Because of these large population areas, there are increased concerns of rising human-elephant conflicts.There have also been reports of increased elephant attacks on tourists and personnel.”Our obligation is to manage and conserve biodiversity,” added Dr Magome.”We have to do something to manage the situation, both for the ecosystem, the people who live near the park and for those who visit it.””Ultimately, the decisions on elephant population management are all about choices of what we want.Do we want elephants to be the main asset of the park and thus manage for elephants or do we want to manage the parks for the entire functioning of the system?” To cull or not to cull Several options are currently being considered by South Africa and other southern African range states to tackle local over-population of elephants.These include range expansion through the establishment of cross-border protected areas and protection of migration corridors, translocation to under-populated areas, contraception, and perhaps the most controversial, culling – the intentional reduction of elephant populations.Each option has its advantages and disadvantages, each its costs and constraints.WWF has for years been working to establish trans-frontier conservation areas in Africa to help conserve elephant migration corridors, to reduce human-elephant conflict, and to establish community-based natural resource management programmes.The global conservation organisation has also helped establish new protected areas at the national level, as well as helped translocate elephants from South Africa to an under-populated trans-border park in Mozambique.But translocation is expensive and labour-intensive and can only help remove a limited number of “unwanted” elephants – up to only 14 at a time, according to Kruger staff.Translocating one elephant can cost as much as US$8 000.Despite the price tag, many have been taken across the border to Mozambique, but the elephants have raided the crops of communities still living in the area, and some have actually found their way back to their traditional feeding grounds in Kruger – making the whole operation ineffective.Contraception methods have also been employed over the years, but this has proven to be expensive and the park’s veterinarians say it can only stabilise populations, not reduce them.It is because of such complex challenges that elephant culling is once again being talked about to address the problems of elephant overpopulation and insufficient space in certain parts of southern Africa.Kruger, as well as other southern African parks, used to cull small numbers annually to maintain populations at levels authorities considered suitable for their environment, but stopped under st
rong international pressure in 1995 after populations in other parts of Africa had been decimated by decades of systematic poaching.The status of the species, however, still varies greatly across Africa.Some populations remain endangered due to poaching for meat and ivory, habitat loss, and conflict with humans, while others are secure and expanding, like in South Africa and its neighbouring countries as a result of successful management and enforcement.”No one likes killing elephants, but we have a responsibility to maintain biodiversity,” said Kruger’s Dr Whyte, an elephant specialist who has worked in the park for the past 36 years.”This is the problem with elephant culling.You have the conservation management issue to deal with, but there is the emotional side.A lot of people identify with elephants, they have family structures similar to ours; they look after each other.But in terms of conservation management of biodiversity, elephants can have a very significant impact on an environment.””We see what happens in other parks when populations explode,” he added.”We are trying to predict well in advance before the serious damage occurs.”Anticipating an international backlash because of the sensitivity of the issue, SANParks and the South African Environment Ministry have been debating any potential cull (no decision has yet been made at the time of writing this article), taking in views from a number of stakeholders, including top scientists, academics, conservation organisations such as WWF, animal welfare groups, local communities bordering Kruger, neighbouring countries that also have large elephant populations, and many others.”We acknowledge the challenges faced by South Africa in managing its expanding elephant population and support the consultative process and attempt to take on board all points of view on this very important and complex issue before making a final decision,” said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF’s Global Species Programme.”Culling should only be considered as a last resort when all non-lethal options have been investigated and thoroughly tried and tested,” she added.”It is also vital that African elephant range states develop long-term, large-scale national and regional plans for elephant and land management that allow elephant populations to exist without danger to ecosystems and local communities.These plans should also provide benefits to local communities.”* Mark Schulman is Managing Editor at WWF International, based in Switzerland.