Too hungry, too destructive, too many: South Africa to begin elephant cull

Amid words of protest and expressions of relief environment minister Martinus van Schalkwyk announced the elephant had been a victim of its own success with numbers growing from 8,000 to nearly 20,000 in national parks and private reserves in just over a decade.

Unveiling a new conservation plan he stressed that the killing of excess animals would only be allowed once all other available options - including translocation and contraception - had been ruled out.

“Our department has recognised the need to maintain culling as a management option, but has taken steps to ensure that this will be the option of last resort that is acceptable only under strict conditions,” he said in a statement. “The issue of population management has been devilishly complex and we would like to think that we have come up with a framework that is acceptable to the majority of South Africans.”

[...]Supporters of culling point to growing difficulties in managing elephants in the country’s biggest and most famous game reserve, Kruger National Park. It has more than 12,500 elephants, 5,000 more than is sustainable, according to park officials. Ecologists say the animals’ huge appetites and fondness for “habitat re-engineering” - reducing forests to flatland by uprooting trees and trampling plants as they feed and roam - threaten the park’s biodiversity.

But some conservationists argue the environmental impact is less severe than is being claimed, while animal rights campaigners, who have threatened to hold public protests if culling goes ahead, say the elephants’ intelligence and their close-knit social structures make culling deeply inhumane.

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