Elephant numbers not unmanageable – SANParks
The South African National Parks (SANParks), have denied allegations that high elephant numbers in the Kruger National Park (KNP) have reached unmanageable levels.
Dr Salomon Joubert, director of the KNP from 1986 to 1994, said on Monday (29 April) that the elephant population in South Africa’s largest wilderness area was a “huge problem”.
“There is an over abundance of elephants in Kruger at the moment. The animals have knocked the daylights out of important ecosystems in certain parts of the park and it is going to be extremely difficult or impossible to reduce the population to manageable levels,” Joubert said.
Dr Sam Ferreira, Large Mammal Ecologist for SANParks countered Joubert’s statements by saying that the 2012 elephant census counted 16 700 individuals, well below what SANParks had projected.
“In 1994, when Kruger stopped elephant culling, there were about 8000 elephants in the park and the population was growing at 6.5% per annum. That predicted that Kruger should have had 24 500 elephants in 2012,” said Ferreira.
“Elephant population growth has decreased to 3.5%. The bottom line is that across Kruger, SANParks observe indications that the elephant population are stabilizing, but differently in different landscapes,” he added.
“The obvious questions is how this can be, given that it contrasts dramatically with perceptions that society at large may have,” Ferreira said.
Joubert was of the opinion that “thousands” of elephants needed to be culled in order to control the population.
“Not only would we have to bring the numbers down to Kruger’s carrying capacity, which I believe is 8 000 elephants, but we would need to take it down to below this to account for the population growth which will occur in the years following this,” he stated.
“SANParks seeks to manage the effects of elephants and not elephants per se,” Ferreira responded. “We have taken the lead and focus on managing direct mechanisms of ecological, conflict and stakeholder effects. Elephant culling is part of our management plans, as well as the closure of artificial waterholes and increasing the size of the park to allow easy movement by elephants.”
Ferreira added that birth rates were declining as the elephant population size was increasing.
“SANParks consider this as strong evidence for natural control of elephants,” he said.
Ferreira admitted that the elephant poaching crisis in Mozambique could spill over into the KNP.
In a 2011 aerial survey of Mozambique’s Niassa Reserve, an alarming 2 667 elephant carcasses were counted. According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the illicit trade in ivory is estimated to have doubled since 2007 and more than tripled over the past 15 years. – The Write News Agency