'Trampling no reason to cull'

2004-05-18 15:12

Johannesburg - Using recent elephant attacks on humans as a reason to start culling herds in the Kruger National Park is shocking, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said on Tuesday.

"Using this kind of sensationalism to help motivate a cull is shocking and counter-productive," the IFAW's South Africa director Jason Bell-Leask said in a statement.

Earlier the former head of conservation at the park Willem Gertenbach suggested that recent fatal attacks by elephants on human beings might be triggered by stress brought on by overpopulation.

"The tragic deaths, most recently that of ecologist Kay Hiscocks, are upsetting but should not distract from the need to come up with pragmatic and thoughtful ways of solving elephant overpopulation problems." Bell-Leask said.

The fund believes a solution might be to link key elephant populations in Southern Africa by extending trans-boundary conservation areas. This would minimise the impact large elephant herds have on vegetation in national parks and reserves and could also solve human/elephant conflict.

To this end, the fund was funding research in Zambia's Kafue National Park that examined migration patterns of elephants

This way the elephants would benefit, people would benefit and so would national coffers as a result of the revenues raised by tourists wanting to view the magnificent sight of herds of roaming elephants, Bell-Leask said.

- SAPA