Hi All
We have a very large Elephant population in Zimbabwe with some folks claiming there are too many. I’m told that there is something like 65,000 in Hwange National Park with Gonarezhou “housing” some 15,000 in their 5,000 square kilometres. Just 3 per square Kilometre is surely not a lot. Should we be concerned? I don’t know the answer. Then what about the destruction of trees and plants in times of need?
Over the years I’ve spoken to lots of people in wildlife management about this sensitive matter in the past and every one of them gave a different perspective on the matter
If you consider the facts like the number of mature, breeding females that only give birth once every 4 years, there are probably 1000 new Elephant born in Hwange every year. In years of extreme drought, many Elephant lose much of their strength and are either dropping down dead or becoming cheap pickings for their predators. During those periods we could lose several thousand Nzou. Even during the good times Elephant still fall prey to the likes of Crocodile, Lion and Hyena.
Many years ago, it was common practice for teams of marksmen to participate in a weeklong Elephant Cull. The overriding principle was that the whole herd was taken out in one fell swoop. This practice is, however, commonly thought of as cruel and unacceptable to wildlife enthusiasts. Even if you do take out a small family herd others in near proximity will sense their demise either through basic instinct or smell. That could make the remaining ones “very skitsy”.
I feel it is essential to have a community discussion on this topic so that informed decisions about our Ellies can be made by the right people. I look forward to reading constructive reader comments on the subject over the coming few days. Assuming I receive enough short, yet relevant comments, I will compile a selection of them to send out as “Readers' Comments”
Ciao Mike G.
Responses
Hi Mike,
We discovered the answers and solutions to this and many other problems in the early 80s…
and the devastating culling of huge numbers of elephants are what lead to these discoveries being made.
I have just published an educational workbook on these exciting new management and ecological insights which offer answers and solutions to why our social, economic and environmental problems continue to escalate in spite of our best efforts to solve them, and how we can solve the issue.
This is from a section of the book…
For thousands of years, we have been blaming natural resources for causing our problems:
Around 10,000 years ago, people began to blame livestock for causing desertification.
In African National Parks, where there was no livestock to blame, we began blaming elephants and other wildlife for causing environmental degradation.
Most people blame coal, oil and livestock for causing global biodiversity loss, megafires and climate change.
But those are all natural resources and no natural resource would ever cause a problem on its own.
The question we must ask ourselves is: who manages those resources?
For thousands of years, we have been blaming natural resources for causing our problems:
Around 10,000 years ago, people began to blame livestock for causing desertification.
In African National Parks, where there was no livestock to blame, we began blaming elephants and other wildlife for causing environmental degradation.
Most people blame coal, oil and livestock for causing global biodiversity loss, megafires and climate change.
But those are all natural resources and no natural resource would ever cause a problem on its own.
The question we must ask ourselves is: who manages those resources?
WE DO.
We made the decision to domesticate livestock and protect them from predators, causing them to behave unnaturally.
We made the decision to remove the indigenous people from the areas we wanted to turn into National Parks.
We made the decision to put up fences in order to 'protect' wild areas, but humans are an adult elephant's main predator and whenever we remove an apex predator from any environment, it causes what is known as a Trophic Cascade.
Our decisions have caused elephants and other wildlife to behave unnaturally - their unnatural behaviour is a symptom of our management.
We made decisions that resulted in us taking fossil fuels out of the ground and developing the technologies that burn them at a rapid, unsustainable rate.
Our management is causing the unnatural behaviour and use of our natural resources, which results in terrible environmental damage, which, in turn, results in an increase in social and economic instability.
Our management is damaging our resources.
The workbook teaches us why our management is failing and how to adjust it to make sure that before making any decision we are able to see and check the action for the potential short and long-term knock-on social, economic and environmental consequences.
And the following are images of pages from the workbook referring specifically to the knock-on consequences of our reductionist management and blaming environmental damage on elephants and culling over 40,000 elephants in the 1950s.
It’s time to change old beliefs that only assumed scientific validity because we have believed them for so long.
Sarah Savory
