Culling elephants : Original Richard Leakey article

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http://richardleakey.wildlifedirect.org/

*Is culling imminent for South African

elephants?*<http://richardleakey.wildlifedirect.org/2008/02/28/is-culling-immine\

nt-for-south-african-elephants/>

* *

*Filed under

(**Politics*<http://richardleakey.wildlifedirect.org/category/politics/>

*) by admin @ 04:32 am*

**

 

*The recent report on elephant management in South Africa has sent alarm

bells ringing throughout the conservation and animal welfare circles and

headlines are screaming that culling is about to be re-introduced (you can

read about it

**here*<http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/the-big-question-why-is-\

south-africa-proposing-to-cull-thousands-of-elephants-787832.html>

* and

**here*<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/mar/01/southafrica.conservati\

onandendangeredspecies>

*). This is a highly emotive issue and I studied the norms and standards

report for elephant management before making any judgment. Indeed, the

report goes far beyond culling and the headlines I have seen have been

rather misleading.*

 

*Let me explain my position. By 1990, long-term research in Kenya and

elsewhere had revealed that elephants have highly organized societies and

have a surprisingly well developed ability to communicate. We consider them

sentient creatures like whales and apes that deserve special consideration

when it comes to their management. I was part of the community of concerned

professionals who objected to the culling of elephants in southern Africa in

and before the 1990's because at that time, the body of knowledge about

elephants was ignored and culling appeared to be largely commercially

motivated (for ivory and trade in baby elephants), was not managed in a

scientific manner and was unacceptably inhumane. Unable to ignore the global

concerns for the ethical and inhumane treatment of elephants, the South

African government then banned the culling of elephants in the 1994.*

 

** <http://richardleakey.wildlifedirect.org2008/02/family.jpg>

 

*Elephants live in close knit families and maintain close ties with others

in their bond groups*

 

** <http://richardleakey.wildlifedirect.org2008/02/matriarch.jpg>

 

*Matriarchs are the leader and reservoirs of elephant community knowledge

and are key to keeping the herd safe*

 

*The statement made by Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South African minister of

Environmental Affairs & Tourism, on the publication of the final norms &

standards for elephant management on 25th February 2008, reveals that South

Africa has come a long way since their positions in the 1980's. The country

has clearly looked seriously at the issues raised by experts from around the

world by consulting widely within and beyond South Africa, and has prepared

a carefully considered position on the management of elephants that aims to

serve the interests of elephants as a species, their welfare, their impacts

on biodiversity and ecosystem integrity, and their effects on the people

both locally and nationally.*

 

*I was pleasantly surprised to find that the guiding principles behind this

piece of legislation begins with acknowledgement that " elephants are

intelligent, have strong family bonds and operate within highly socialised

groups and unnecessary disruption of these groups by human intervention

should be minimized " .*

 

*The welfare of elephants is further emphasized in the statement that

" management interventions must, wherever practicable, be based on scientific

knowledge or management experience regarding elephant populations and must

take into account the social structure of elephants; be based on measures to

avoid stress and disturbance to elephants, and; where lethal measures are

necessary to manage an elephant or group of elephants or to manage the size

of elephant populations, these should be undertaken with caution and after

all other alternatives have been considered " *

 

*While I will never 'like' the idea of elephant culling, I do accept that

given the impacts of human induced climate change, and habitat destruction,

elephants in and outside of protected areas will become an increasingly

serious problem unless some key populations are reduced and maintained at

appropriate levels. A part of the problem is caused by increasing demand for

resources by humans and I believe that we have are responsibility to check

our own impacts in order to reduce conflicts between elephants and humans by

controlling human activities as well.*

 

*Reducing elephant populations may therefore, be a necessary part of

population management, and this will be done in a humane and considered

manner. South Africa intends to reserve culling as a last resort after all

other options such as translocations, fertility control have been exhausted.

Though I find elephant culling repugnant, I can see the sense in it in some

scenarios, as I imagine many others do also.*

 

*If culling is deemed necessary, then I would personally like to see the

management authority ensure that entire families or bond groups are removed

intact to eliminate or minimize the emotional trauma to remaining

individuals, and secondly, to maintain smaller populations using the tested

and approved fertility control. It means that the authorities have much work

to do in terms of studying the family and bond groups and maintaining good

records. If done well, removing or culling entire bond groups would reduce

cases of rogue elephants and could eliminate or reduce the frequency of

further culling in the future.*

 

** <http://richardleakey.wildlifedirect.org2008/02/baby.jpg>

 

*Like human babies, elephant calves are protected fiercely and influence

social behavior

 

Finally, it is with great relief that I note that the Minister has

prohibited any further capture of wild elephants for captivity. He

acknowledges the unacceptably cruel practices that are common in captive

elephant care and training in South Africa where baby elephants are beaten

and tortured to 'break their will' in order to train them for tourism,

circuses and even zoos. I look forward to seeing new legislation that

completely eliminates cruelty in the captive care and training of these

highly intelligent and feeling animals.*