Elephant Culling…is it Necessary?

There are always huge debates as to whether the 
culling of elephant is ethical or not. Everyone is 
entitled to their own opinion and in my opinion and Solutions?
many others, it MUST be done. If we don’t cull 
we will still lose many 1000’s of elephants as well 
as many other different species of game along with 
them in the future.Relocation of elephants to other game reserves:
  
The Kruger National Park is a massive 20 000 squareSounds good but it only helps temporarily as
kilometres surrounded by a fence and because ofeventually space in these reserves runs out and the
this fence it is not a 100% natural environment whichcost of moving them becomes more expensive as
as a result requires grooming such as  culling,they have to be moved even further away to new
stocking up of rare animal species from otherareas. With over 300 elephant born into the Kruger
reserves and controlled fires to keep it as natural asNational Park every year you can imagine the cost of
possible.   moving 300 every year just to keep the population
 constant at           12 000.Helicopters, pilots,
The Problemvets, sedative drugs, transportation trucks, fuel, legal
 papers, all of this costs a lot when moving elephants
150 years ago there were no fences dividingto other game reserves or countries.
countries which prevent the natural movement of 
game forced by the change in seasons. Many animals 
migrating in search of food and or water died, 
especially old, weak and injured individuals, possibly as Female Contraception:        
a result of not reaching their destinations on time. 
This would help control the numbers of many gameThe female elephants are given a contraceptive
species, leaving only the strong and healthy toinjection which is highly effective but needs to be
survive.With the development of conservation areasadministered roughly every 6 months to keep
such as the Kruger National Park, with all itsworking. Not all females are given the contraceptive
man-made dams and abundance of thick vegetation,which still allows the births of a few calves into the
there is very rarely a shortage of food or water forherds. This exercise is extremely expensive especially
game resulting in the massive increase in the elephantwith large populations where 1000’s of females
population.are given the injection every 6 months. The
 population growth slows down but still doesn’t
It’s hard to believe that the Kruger nationalsolve the over-population problem.       
Parks’ elephant population was almost totally 
wiped out  just 100 years ago due to excessive 
hunting and poaching and today it sits on about 12 
000, which is 4 500 above the natural carryingCropping:
capacity with the population increasing close to 3% 
every year!If populations get too high, the impact onCropping is the process where small amounts of
vegetation will be devastating as elephants requiregame are shot over a long period of time. An
huge amounts of food to sustain their large bodiesexample of this would be taking out say 5 or 10
along with their weak digestive systems. Large bullsanimals per week over a period of a couple months.
will eat as much as 250 kg of vegetation and drinkCropping works but has the down side that the
up to 180 litres of water every day! visibility may be poor in the summer and early winter
 months, making it very difficult when shooting on the
Of all the African herbivores the elephant has theground or from helicopters.        
most varied diet in terms of different plant species, 
eating almost every plant if finds and who knows,Culling:
with too many elephant how many plant species may 
be lost forever. The elephants’ favourite food isCulling is the process whereby a fairly large amount
grass. If an area is over-populated, in time the groundof animals are shot within a short period of time, for
will be totally stripped of all grass which may result inexample; shooting say 200 elephants in the space of
serous erosion as the root systems of the grasses3 weeks. This may come across a very cruel, but to
would normally hold the soil together. Areas thatdate has been the only real long term effective
have been severely over-grazed and eroded maymethod used. Culling operations are done in the
take many years to recover back to a suitable stateshortest possible time to lessen the stress on the
and in some cases never recover. Grazing animalsanimals been shot.        
such as wildebeest, zebra, white rhino and 
hippopotamus will eventually die off if there is noBefore culling was put to an end in 1997 the Kruger
grass to eat or nowhere else to find more.When allhad a very healthy population of elephant. The tusks
the grass has been eaten, the elephant thenof culled animals were stored in safe warehouses or
concentrate more on feeding off trees and shrubs.often burnt and much of the meat was processed
It’s not just the leaves they eat but also thefor tin food which was given to poor communities
roots and bark of certain trees. They uproot trees,and used by staff members of the park. Hyenas,
strip off bark and before we know it there arejackals, vultures and many other scavenging animals
1000’s of dead trees as far as the eye can see.made sure to clean up the rest of any carcasses left
 behind.
So what use to be lush thick vegetation with allsorts 
of beautiful trees and shrubs now looks like a desertFor now the game reserves that can afford it are
with lots of sand, heavily eroded areas, tree stumpsusing female contraception and relocating elephants.
and the bones of all the animals that have now diedThere are ongoing talks about bringing back culling
of starvation, all of this as a result of nothing beenbut still no change. One day in the future
done to properly solve the over-population of‘they’ will realise that culling is the answer
elephant.but by that time it will be too late. If only
 ‘they’ would fully understand.