Problems with elephant translocation.

[Selous]

As some of you may be aware the population of elephant in some areas is exceeding the carrying capacity leading to permanent damage to the precious riverine ecosystems. Culling is effective at reducing populations however large scale culls of whole family groups are politically unpopular and now are seldom performed. With human encroachment into habitat the elephants are getting squeezed into smaller areas whilst the populations often increase by 3-7% per year (so double every 10-15 years). Translocation of groups of elephants into less populated regions have been proposed as one way of avoiding culling.

I’ve just seen this news report that highlights the problems that can be encountered where elephants are moved to different areas. In the UK we see very low grade human-animal conflict but we would not tolerate problems on this level. Multiple fatalities and widespread destruction of subsistence crops. I hope the NGO involved are made to properly compensate those involved.

Charity faces legal action after relocated elephants in Malawi allegedly kill 10 people

People living near Kasungu national park say they are living in fear after translocation of 263 elephants by International Fund for Animal Welfare

www.theguardian.com

 

[KimE]

Whats a lot of elefants

 

[Beej]

hows you Selous. I am very familiar with this as i was part of the original team that radio collared a few elephants that inhabited a stretch of unprotected bush behind the lakeshore back in 2000, there were around 150 elephants in that area and were being poached and at the same time killing local villagers during crop raiding etc. In the end most of these elephants were translocated into Liwonde National Park, where they could be better protected and most of the park was fenced, apart from the boundary on the Shire river. This was mostly a success, but the elephants occassionaly crossed the river for crop raiding.

With this most recent case in Kasungu, a lot of the elephants have come from Liwonde national park, as the population was so well protected ( by Africa Parks, who took over managment of the park ), that they needed to reduce the population and it made sense at the time that they should populate Kasungu national park, which was undergoing re-stocking under neew management plans and a drive to attarct tourism back. Unfortunately however the preparation ground work and Human Wildlife conflict mitigation plans were not put in place prior to the move. The local villages should have been educated and better protected. Its absolutley crucial that the local population see the benefit of living alongside these animals, if not, then its doomed to fail as the elephants will be targeted and so will the Park authorities. The authorities need to act fast and i expect a couple of the repeat offenders that go crop raiding will have to be shot to show the locals that their voice is being listened to, but long term it will be a big task to manage the human wildlife conflict and keep the villagers on side.
fingers crossed for more positive headlines in future and yes they deffinitely need compensating.

 

[angusb1]

hows you Selous. I am very familiar with this as i was part of the original team that radio collared a few elephants that inhabited a stretch of unprotected bush behind the lakeshore back in 2000, there were around 150 elephants in that area and were being poached and at the same time killing local villagers during crop raiding etc. In the end most of these elephants were translocated into Liwonde National Park, where they could be better protected and most of the park was fenced, apart from the boundary on the Shire river. This was mostly a success, but the elephants occassionaly crossed the river for crop raiding.

With this most recent case in Kasungu, a lot of the elephants have come from Liwonde national park, as the population was so well protected ( by Africa Parks, who took over managment of the park ), that they needed to reduce the population and it made sense at the time that they should populate Kasungu national park, which was undergoing re-stocking under neew management plans and a drive to attarct tourism back. Unfortunately however the preparation ground work and Human Wildlife conflict mitigation plans were not put in place prior to the move. The local villages should have been educated and better protected. Its absolutley crucial that the local population see the benefit of living alongside these animals, if not, then its doomed to fail as the elephants will be targeted and so will the Park authorities. The authorities need to act fast and i expect a couple of the repeat offenders that go crop raiding will have to be shot to show the locals that their voice is being listened to, but long term it will be a big task to manage the human wildlife conflict and keep the villagers on side.
fingers crossed for more positive headlines in future and yes they deffinitely need compensating.

Thanks for explaining this. Really interesting to hear the details.

 

[Nimrod1960]

I know nothing of all this, but interesting never the less. The interface between “advanced” humans and raw nature is always complicated and fascinating.
I often contemplate this whilst sat up a tree in the early hours.

 

[Selous]

hows you Selous. I am very familiar with this as i was part of the original team that radio collared a few elephants that inhabited a stretch of unprotected bush behind the lakeshore back in 2000, there were around 150 elephants in that area and were being poached and at the same time killing local villagers during crop raiding etc. In the end most of these elephants were translocated into Liwonde National Park, where they could be better protected and most of the park was fenced, apart from the boundary on the Shire river. This was mostly a success, but the elephants occassionaly crossed the river for crop raiding.

With this most recent case in Kasungu, a lot of the elephants have come from Liwonde national park, as the population was so well protected ( by Africa Parks, who took over managment of the park ), that they needed to reduce the population and it made sense at the time that they should populate Kasungu national park, which was undergoing re-stocking under neew management plans and a drive to attarct tourism back. Unfortunately however the preparation ground work and Human Wildlife conflict mitigation plans were not put in place prior to the move. The local villages should have been educated and better protected. Its absolutley crucial that the local population see the benefit of living alongside these animals, if not, then its doomed to fail as the elephants will be targeted and so will the Park authorities. The authorities need to act fast and i expect a couple of the repeat offenders that go crop raiding will have to be shot to show the locals that their voice is being listened to, but long term it will be a big task to manage the human wildlife conflict and keep the villagers on side.
fingers crossed for more positive headlines in future and yes they deffinitely need compensating.

Many thanks for the first hand insight. It goes to show how finely balanced nature and the needs of the local population is.

 

[Camdig]

Leigh Day solicitors have been instructed to defend the claimants that might end up in a court in England, what has African Elephants and their destruction got to do with Leigh Day solicitors and English courts?
Am guessing this vanity project was bank rolled by Brittish conservation charities and the solicitors are on the gravy train, they have a track record for that.

 

[Bowland blades]

I respect the Elephant , but i also get the fact that Man is just about its only predator . We need to balance all of Nature with facts and too many Elephant leads to a poor heard and agricultural damage.
Ivory Poaching however is all about money , we must separate from management . You only have to see the native tribes come in from the village to collect the meat from a culled Elephant to understand that there is a massive difference twix the two.

 

[wildfowler.250]

As some of you may be aware the population of elephant in some areas is exceeding the carrying capacity leading to permanent damage to the precious riverine ecosystems. Culling is effective at reducing populations however large scale culls of whole family groups are politically unpopular and now are seldom performed. With human encroachment into habitat the elephants are getting squeezed into smaller areas whilst the populations often increase by 3-7% per year (so double every 10-15 years). Translocation of groups of elephants into less populated regions have been proposed as one way of avoiding culling.

I’ve just seen this news report that highlights the problems that can be encountered where elephants are moved to different areas. In the UK we see very low grade human-animal conflict but we would not tolerate problems on this level. Multiple fatalities and widespread destruction of subsistence crops. I hope the NGO involved are made to properly compensate those involved.

Charity faces legal action after relocated elephants in Malawi allegedly kill 10 people

People living near Kasungu national park say they are living in fear after translocation of 263 elephants by International Fund for Animal Welfare

www.theguardian.com

Fairly sure this is the same story as blood origins have been doing podcasts on lately.

There’s 1.5 hour podcast with the guy involved in the translocation and another with a reporter both recently released.

 

[Selous]

Fairly sure this is the same story as blood origins have been doing podcasts on lately.

There’s 1.5 hour podcast with the guy involved in the translocation and another with a reporter both recently released.

Thanks, I’ll look that up

 

[Selous]

I respect the Elephant , but i also get the fact that Man is just about its only predator . We need to balance all of Nature with facts and too many Elephant leads to a poor heard and agricultural damage.
Ivory Poaching however is all about money , we must separate from management . You only have to see the native tribes come in from the village to collect the meat from a culled Elephant to understand that there is a massive difference twix the two.

The biggest threats to elephants and probably most of Africas wildlife is loss of habitat - principally human encroachment, human-animal conflict as highlighted here (this understandably leads to revenge killing) and also illegal poaching as you have mentioned. I will just add that well managed hunting contributes greatly to the local economy and vitally gives the game a value rather than just being a negative liability to the community. In many areas there are factors that make regions unsuitable for photographic tourism such as low game densities, presence of tsetse flies etc so hunting becomes a vital resource that literally makes the difference between life and death to the indigenous people. Safari companies contribute massively to these communities and provide anti-poaching patrols, schools, medical clinics, solar bore holes and employment as well as donating much needed protein and providing problem animal control where needed.
If anyone is interested in the fascinating work of an anti poaching unit have a look at DAPU - Dande Anti Poaching Unit - Zimbabwe
This gives reports from the Dande Anti Poaching Unit (DAPU) who have been established and funded by the local safari company Charlton McCallum Safaris - Zimbabwe Safari Tours, Hunting Big Game Trophies in Dande Safari Area, Zimbabwe, Africa.

 

[Beej]

The biggest threats to elephants and probably most of Africas wildlife is loss of habitat - principally human encroachment, human-animal conflict as highlighted here (this understandably leads to revenge killing) and also illegal poaching as you have mentioned. I will just add that well managed hunting contributes greatly to the local economy and vitally gives the game a value rather than just being a negative liability to the community. In many areas there are factors that make regions unsuitable for photographic tourism such as low game densities, presence of tsetse flies etc so hunting becomes a vital resource that literally makes the difference between life and death to the indigenous people. Safari companies contribute massively to these communities and provide anti-poaching patrols, schools, medical clinics, solar bore holes and employment as well as donating much needed protein and providing problem animal control where needed.
If anyone is interested in the fascinating work of an anti poaching unit have a look at DAPU - Dande Anti Poaching Unit - Zimbabwe
This gives reports from the Dande Anti Poaching Unit (DAPU) who have been established and funded by the local safari company Charlton McCallum Safaris - Zimbabwe Safari Tours, Hunting Big Game Trophies in Dande Safari Area, Zimbabwe, Africa.

Yes absolutely 100% correct and Charlton McCallum are a fantatstic outfit.

 

[Mungo]

As some of you may be aware the population of elephant in some areas is exceeding the carrying capacity leading to permanent damage to the precious riverine ecosystems. Culling is effective at reducing populations however large scale culls of whole family groups are politically unpopular and now are seldom performed. With human encroachment into habitat the elephants are getting squeezed into smaller areas whilst the populations often increase by 3-7% per year (so double every 10-15 years). Translocation of groups of elephants into less populated regions have been proposed as one way of avoiding culling.

I’ve just seen this news report that highlights the problems that can be encountered where elephants are moved to different areas. In the UK we see very low grade human-animal conflict but we would not tolerate problems on this level. Multiple fatalities and widespread destruction of subsistence crops. I hope the NGO involved are made to properly compensate those involved.

Charity faces legal action after relocated elephants in Malawi allegedly kill 10 people

People living near Kasungu national park say they are living in fear after translocation of 263 elephants by International Fund for Animal Welfare

www.theguardian.com

The Liwonde elephants were notorious for being extremely aggressive and very dangerous as far back as the late 1970s.

My father had vehicles destroyed by them and my mother was chased several miles in a truck by them. Everyone knew to be very cautious around them.

The thinking was that they’d been persecuted a lot longer than the other populations, and those that persisted did because they were so aggressive.

Anyone who knew the history would have told them translocating to Kasungu was going to be a disaster.

The Kasungu elephants were very different - much more placid and accommodating. Which is probably why they got hammered so badly.

 

[Selous]

The Liwonde elephants were notorious for being extremely aggressive and very dangerous as far back as the late 1970s.

My father had vehicles destroyed by them and my mother was chased several miles in a truck by them. Everyone knew to be very cautious around them.

The thinking was that they’d been persecuted a lot longer than the other populations, and those that persisted did because they were so aggressive.

Anyone who knew the history would have told them translocating to Kasungu was going to be a disaster.

The Kasungu elephants were very different - much more placid and accommodating. Which is probably why they got hammered so badly.

The Liwonde herd sound similar to those from Gonorezou in southern Zim. They were ruthlessly exploited as a food resource and were reputed to be highly cantankerous

 

[bowji john]

… and those in @CarlW ‘ s place in Moz

Very aggressive as a consequence of human interference

You can tell an ivory poacher as they all run around on Chinese motorbikes

Doesn’t take huge speculation as to who is paying for the poaching

 

[Mungo]

The Liwonde herd sound similar to those from Gonorezou in southern Zim. They were ruthlessly exploited as a food resource and were reputed to be highly cantankerous

The Liwonde ones were worse than Gonorezou!

Or at least this was my dad’s claim whenever he got into a willy measuring contest with Rhodesians!

 

[Mungo]

When I worked in Queen Elizabeth NP in Uganda, there were two very distinct groups of elephants. There were ones we speculated were strongly hefted to a ‘safe’ area around the Park HQ, and these were quite placid and never really bothered anyone.

Then there were herds that we thought moved back and forth into Congo, and these were exceptionally dangerous.

Trouble was, you never knew which ones you were walking into until it was too late…

 

[NickJ]

The Blood Origins podcast series on this issue is interesting.

I think Robbie missed making a point though, when the scientist Jeanette suggested natural mortality and contraception as an option this, to my mind seems perverse in Southern Africa where culling would provide such a valuable source of protein to communities on the breadline. It does also, of course reduce poaching

 

[Selous]

The Blood Origins podcast series on this issue is interesting.

I think Robbie missed making a point though, when the scientist Jeanette suggested natural mortality and contraception as an option this, to my mind seems perverse in Southern Africa where culling would provide such a valuable source of protein to communities on the breadline. It does also, of course reduce poaching

Contraception has been tried by producing a vaccine against proteins from the zona pellucida of the ovum. From what I understand this experiment (in Kruger) lead to bull elephants remaining in musth and causing all sorts of problems due to their state of heightened aggression. Pretty sure this was from a podcast with Kevin Robertson the vet who wrote “The Perfect Shot”
I think this is the episode where it was discussed.

Ep 176: Elephant Conservation With Kevin Robertson

Apple | Google | iHeart | Spotify | Stitcher

thebiggamehuntingblog.com

 

[bowji john]

A fine balance