Elephant Culling’s Cruel and Gory Past
Ten years ago South Africa’s flagship wildlife reserve, the Kruger National Park (KNP), finally bowed to pressure when public outrage over its brutal and cruel culling methods forced it to stop killing elephants. Now it seems elephants may once again soon find themselves in the cross-hairs of sharp shooters' guns.
At the time, South Africa was experiencing the infancy of modern-day conservation awareness and an understanding that if wildlife populations were not properly protected, they would disappear forever.
The country’s first game reserve, now known as Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, was established in 1895 in Zululand at about the same time as the reserve that was officially proclaimed the KNP in 1926.
Under the shelter of better protection, South Africa’s elephant populations slowly increased and by the mid 1960s conservation efforts were so successful that KNP’s managers felt the reserve had too many elephants and that a reduction in their numbers was necessary.
More than 16,000 elephants cruelly killed
The idea of culling KNP elephants as a method of population control had been discussed as early as the 1940s, but it was only in 1965 that the option was adopted.
Between 1966 and 1994 about 16,210 elephants were killed in the KNP in the cruelest manner possible.
Using the lethal transquillising drug succinylcholine chloride (better known as Scoline), elephants were herded together by helicopter and then darted. The drug literally brought elephants to their knees, leaving them to suffocate to death while remaining fully conscious and unable to move – a process that took several minutes.
If death did not come quickly enough, they were shot in the head.
As early as 1968, leading scientists were complaining of the use of Scoline as a culling technique, but KNP persisted in using the drug late into its culling programme.
International Outrage Forces Change
By 1995, international and local pressure helped force a moratorium (temporary ban) on the culling of elephants. Since then, in the KNP at least, elephants have been free of the guns.
Now South African National Parks (SANParks), the custodians of the KNP, is proposing to take up arms against its elephants once again. This time there will be no use of Scoline; they will rely instead on the accuracy of marksmen to fell elephants from airborne helicopters and the ground.
SANParks is once again complaining that KNP’s elephant population is too big and is affecting biodiversity in the park. Yet many eminent scientists, including IFAW and other animal welfare groups, are of the opinion that SANParks simply doesn’t have the science to back up its call for a cull.
Elephants Need Your Voice Once Again
SANParks proposes to kill thousands of elephants – as many as 5,000 animals or 40 per cent of its entire elephant population – in a bid to reduce KNP’s elephant population to a number it considers manageable.
If a decision to cull elephants is approved, it will fly in the face of scientific opinion that believes far more research into KNP’s elephant population is required before an informed decision can be made.
There is no doubt that the protests that stopped the cull in 1995 will be
heard again and louder than ever.
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IFAW – and many eminent scientists and other animal welfare groups – believe that South Africa should not be thinking of culling elephants now but focus instead on a better understanding of the interactions between elephants and their environment. Photo © IFAW
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If South African National Parks (SANParks) gets its way, entire family groups such as this one will be herded together by helicopter and sharp shooters will kill them from air and on the ground. Photo © IFAW
