Kruger National Park: Elephant Cull or Killing Fields?

Now South African National Parks (SANParks), the custodians of the KNP, have put culling in the park firmly back on the agenda.  SANParks have proposed to the South African Government that the killing of elephants be resumed. They say the KNP’s elephant population is too big and its size is affecting biodiversity in the park.

Only this time it is SANParks, the same organisation that complained 10 years ago that anti-cull protestors didn’t have scientific evidence to back up their calls, which has been caught on the back foot.

This time it is SANParks which, in the opinion of IFAW and many eminent elephant biologists and other animal welfare groups, simply doesn’t have the science to support its call for a cull.

“Culling is a cruel, unethical and a scientifically unsound practice that does not consider the welfare implications to elephant society as a whole,” says Jason Bell-Leask, IFAW’s Southern Africa Director.

Thousands of elephants to die without proper evidence

SANParks is proposing to literally kill  thousands of elephants.  They claim that KNP’s carrying capacity for elephants is 7,500, while the current population stands at around 12,500 elephants.

They will do this by herding groups of elephants together by helicopter and then using sharp-shooters in the air and on the ground to fell the elephants.

IFAW and many others believe that there is a better way of managing KNP’s elephant populations, a way that relies on nature itself.

A better way: "megaparks"

The creation of “megaparks” – or cross-boundary/border parks – will allow a greater migration of elephant groups between parks and countries in Southern Africa. A series of conservation networks that include differing landscapes and conditions would restore a more natural balance to elephants and their relationship with the environment.

Other alternatives could also include contraception and translocation.

So far, SANParks has not looked carefully enough at these options and is ignoring a groundswell of demands from opinion leaders that far more research into the KNP’s elephant population is required before an informed decision can be made.

“A decision by South Africa’s Minister of Environment Affairs and Tourism, Mr Marthinus van Schalkwyk, to allow a cull will send a disturbing message to the world about South Africa’s attitude towards wildlife management,” says Bell-Leask.

“Further, KNP attracts 1,3-million tourists a year, many of whom are attracted by the opportunity to view large numbers of elephants in their natural habitat.  South Africa’s reputation as a custodian of wildlife can only suffer if the shooting starts again.”

The KNP should be a scientifically sound sanctuary for wildlife, not the killing fields proposed by its keepers.