People too bold in the bush

2004-05-12 12:13

Elise Tempelhoff

Pretoria - People have become too complacent around animals, and that, combined with tourists seeking an ever closer encounter with the bush, is leading to people being trampled by elephants.

Dr Ian Whyte, senior scientific researcher in the Kruger National Park, says the "elephant problem" is actually a "human problem".

He says recent incidents of humans being trampled by elephants happened because there are too many people on the western border of the park, and not because there are too many elephants inside.

"People are encroaching in areas that formerly belonged to the elephants. Elephants must try to survive in a sea of people, while fences hamper their movement."

Since fences on the western border of the park were removed in 1994, development on adjacent game farms increased ten-fold. And since grazing is excellent in this area, elephants are streaming there.

Dr Douw Grobler, a game veterinarian who works closely with park management, says elephant numbers in this area have increased from about 100 in 1994 to about 900 at present.

The Lions Sands game reserve, where ecologist Kay Hiscocks was trampled to death last week, is situated in this area.

Prof Wouter van Hoven of the centre for wildlife at the University of Pretoria says competition between game farms has led to eco-tourism developing into a sales commodity.

"Game farm managers are competing to give their tourists ever more exiting eco-experiences. People become irresponsible, forgetting that elephants are huge, wild animals."

Elephants are not normally aggressive, but a cow with a calf is not to be tampered with, he said. The cow that trampled Hiscocks had a calf.

He says people have grown too cocky. They don't know how the elephants will behave, and they go too close.

- Beeld