Elephant Management and Poaching in African Countries

Discussion on Elephant Management and poaching topics
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Re: Elephant Management and Poaching in Other African Countries

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Poison? I cannot imagine anything else :-?


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Re: Elephant Management and Poaching in Other African Countries

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https://africanelephantjournal.com/bots ... e-secrecy/?

COMMENTARY
Botswana’s mass elephant deaths – why the secrecy?
POSTED ON1ST JUL 2020

By Dr Pieter Kat – Director, LionAid

Back some time ago, there were reports that a number of elephant carcasses had been found, most in the smallish concession area NG11 in the Okavango region.

Then the number of carcasses began to escalate, and escalate, and go further through the roof. There are now reports of over 400 carcasses in the NG11 area and maybe some adjoining areas.

400 elephants dead would surely constitute a major crisis to be properly addressed in an open and transparent way by the government of Botswana. But so far, and months after the initial carcasses were discovered, there is still no answer as to why that many elephants are dead.

Surely discovering the cause of death is not beyond the wit of good scientists in Botswana, for example at the National Veterinary Laboratory. Also, that laboratory is connected with other similar research institutions regionally in SADC and internationally. The cause of death should have been a piece of cake to decipher, especially since fresh carcasses were available and samples were collected.

The Botswana government has ruled out anthrax (very simple) but nothing else. So was it an elephant disease that suddenly emerged in a small area of Botswana and killed many? The elephant equivalent of a Wuhan wet market and COVID-19?

Not possible. Most of the elephant carcasses are adults and some subadults as seen from the images – a disease would affect all age classes. Also, many of the photographs show that the dead elephants collapsed almost in mid-step, falling forward and then – dead.

Ivory poaching has also been ruled out as the great majority of the carcasses have been found with tusks intact.

It is almost like what you expect to see from a chemical nerve agent – a poison. But unlike in Zimbabwe, where waterholes were intentionally poisoned with cyanide, there seems to be little involvement of other wildlife species. And unlike poisons used in other cases, there seems to have been little collateral damage to scavengers eating the poisoned carcasses – like hyenas, lions, jackals, vultures.

So what is killing the elephants? Botswana needs to find out. Allow samples from the freshest carcasses to be taken and send them to competent testing laboratories. The Botswana wildlife department has claimed that sending such samples was difficult under COVID lockdowns, or that the samples have not been processed because of backlogs. Other reports are emerging that samples have never been sent.

400 elephants dead cannot be buried behind excuses and a lack of transparency. Botswana is a major destination for wildlife tourists, and this cannot be shuffled conveniently under a carpet woven of complacency and excuses.

Get testing Botswana, get the truth out no matter how inconvenient or uncomfortable if the elephants were indeed killed by a man-made cause. Costs of testing by international laboratories should not be a barrier – after all, Botswana is now engaging in a costly rhino de-horning program after massive poaching.

Botswana might these days not like the fact that they are the nation with the most elephants on the continent. Elephants cause crop damage and endanger human life. But Botswana gains more employment income from wildlife than subsistence agriculture, Botswana’s economy is ever more dependent on tourism.

If elephant numbers are really a problem to Botswana, there are many willing to step in with finance, plans, solutions to open the pressure valve.


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Re: Elephant Management and Poaching in Other African Countries

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Curiouser and curiouser! :-?


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Re: Elephant Management and Poaching in Other African Countries

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:yes: :-?


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Re: Elephant Management and Poaching in Other African Countries

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Another one.

Over 400 Botswana elephants killed in mystery mass die-off

By Don Pinnock• 2 July 2020

Image
Two of the carcasses found in the Okavango Delta. Photo: SUPPLIED

(Sensitive viewer alert: Photo Gallery at the bottom of the story)

From the air, a dead elephant torn into by scavengers is a grisly sight. In north-east Botswana the presence of at least 400 must have been overwhelming.

The first carcass was found near Seronga on May 11 by researchers in a helicopter trying to discover why an elephant with a satellite tracker hadn’t moved for some time. What they found was shocking.

The dead elephants were dotted near natural waterholes in mopane woodland and along trails. They had collapsed on their chests, almost in mid-step, suggesting sudden death — almost what a chemical nerve poison would do.

A further eight elephants in the area appeared to be weak and lethargic, some walking with difficulty or in circles, suggesting neurological impairment. Puzzlingly, no young elephants appear to have died.

A leaked report seen by Daily Maverick located the deaths in the NG11 area east of the Okavango Panhandle. Although some carcasses were estimated to have died within a month, most appeared to be only one day to two weeks old.

Environmental organisations have questioned why the Botswana government didn’t act sooner, faster and with more concern to establish the cause, which is still unknown. The director for conservation at the UK-based charity National Park Rescue, Dr Niall McCann, told The Guardian:

“When we’ve got a mass die-off of elephants near human habitation at a time when wildlife disease is very much at the forefront of everyone’s minds, it seems extraordinary that the government has not sent the samples to a reputable lab.”

The Botswana government claims it has. It says blood samples were taken from the elephants and sent to laboratories outside the country for testing.

Dr Cyril Taolo, acting director for Botswana’s department of Wildlife and National Parks, said they were expecting the results “over the next couple of weeks or so”. This would make it two months from when the carcasses were reported, if that date is correct.

He declined to say which laboratories they had been sent to.

According to a local environmental organisation, if samples were taken and sent, there’s a good chance the process would not have been thorough. This would require the same lab that does the testing taking the samples itself, not only of blood, but from multiple carcasses and including soil and water — and they should make the return of these results a top priority.

The real concern, according to Mary Rice, executive director of the Environmental Investigation Agency in London, is “the delay in getting the samples to an accredited laboratory for testing in order to identify the problem — and then take measures to mitigate it”.

“The lack of urgency is of real concern and does not reflect the actions of a responsible custodian.”

The NGO Global March for Elephants and Rhinos noted that it was also vital for the carcasses to be guarded, that the tusks remain intact and that forensically viable blood, tissue and organ samples were in fact obtained. It was also important to know when they were obtained and where they are now.

Without co-ordinated information, many more elephants — a key species in the country’s tourist industry — and even humans could be at risk. Covid-19 has been mentioned as a possible cause but is considered unlikely.

Poaching is not suspected as tusks had not been removed. Nor is cyanide, which has been used in the past by poachers According to Dimakatso Ntshebe, a regional wildlife director for the Botswana government, “if it was poisoning, some scavengers who were feeding on elephant carcasses could have died. But that was not the case”.

Another possibility is anthrax, a deadly bacterial disease that lives in soil and on plants in a dormant state for years. But outbreaks generally take place in the dry season — April to October — and the government has stated that it’s unlikely to be the cause. However, it has cautioned people not to eat “bushmeat” from the carcasses.

There seems no technical reason why samples could not have been analysed within days. The Botswana National Veterinary Laboratory, just outside Gaborone, is a leading regional research institution quite capable of coming up with the required research. It has established connections across the SADC region and with leading western veterinary research institutions.

According to Lion Aid researcher Pieter Kat, “the cause of death should have been a piece of cake to decipher, especially since fresh carcasses were available and samples were collected”.

The Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust in nearby Zimbabwe may have been sent blood samples from the carcasses, but its vet, Dr Chris Foggin, was in Harare when we called and had not seen any samples.

Onderstepoort Veterinary Laboratories in South Africa is evidently also said to be involved, but no results have been forthcoming. A Botswana government spokesperson said this was because of delays caused by the Covid-19 lockdown.

In a further potential delay, reports emerged that government’s bid to investigate the deaths had run out of funds at local level in Maun, potentially affecting the payments required to be made to research labs.

Ntshebe was quoted by an online publication, Botswana Safari News, as saying that while funds had run out, the ministry would “be replenishing the effort soon”.

However, he said some local NGOs had made offers to help with air transportation and other resources in the ongoing investigation. Their proposals are being considered by his superiors in Gaborone.

The elephant deaths came on the back of a surge in rhino poaching in Botswana. The pandemic lockdown has meant an absence of safari tourists and officials are currently racing to evacuate black rhino from the Okavango Delta where lodges and camps have been mothballed, with few eyes on the ground.

In 2019, the country’s president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, lifted a ban on hunting elephants. In February, a major auction for big game hunters to kill 70 elephants was held, the first since the hunting ban was scrapped.

Masisi has fended off criticism of his government’s decision to lift the ban, saying the move would not threaten the elephant population. But with the mystery deaths in the Panhandle together with hunting and poaching, a different picture is emerging. DM

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Re: Elephant Management and Poaching in Other African Countries

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Why Elephants are Dying in Botswana!

Ron ThomsonJuly 4, 2020

Submission to Daily Maverick by Ron Thomson – ARTICLE.2. 2020/07/03

Over the last several weeks some 400 elephants have (so far this year) died mysterious deaths in Botswana; and the reports suggest that there are many more sick animals wandering about the game reserves. I feel confident enough, at this stage, therefore, to predict that a lot more elephants are going to die before the end of the current dry season. Anthrax and poison have been ruled out as the cause of these deaths. No tusks have been removed from the carcasses. So, poaching seems not to be the reason, either.

I believe the cause of these deaths is, purely and simply, starvation. I say this with some conviction because I have been predicting that this was going to happen for many years.

I see these deaths, therefore, as something of an apocalyptic event. They are telling us of a significant elephant die-off that is yet to come. This year? Probably! Next year then? Maybe!

Let me explain why.

For the readers to understand and to accept this prognosis, requires that they have some knowledge and understanding about the history of elephant management.

The first person of authority to declare that there were too many elephants in Botswana was the late Dr Graham Child who, in 1960, was working in what is today called Chobe National Park in Botswana. He was then employed by the United Nations Organisation FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation). He witnessed and recorded the destruction of the Chobe riverine forest which, that year, was already in an advanced stage of damage. He took the trouble to count and to identify all the big trees comprising that forest. Today none of them are still standing. The forest has gone! All the trees were killed by the feeding pressure of too many elephants.


A Camel thorn tree with Sparrow-Weaver nests near the Botswanan border at Tshelanyemba village in south-western Zimbabwe. Source: Wikipedia
He also recorded another forest at Chobe. Six hundred giant camel-thorn trees growing in a single valley away from the river. He determined that these trees were all, uniformly, 400 years old – which suggests (to me) that they grew out of a once extensive and later abandoned agricultural cropland (which is where the seeds of this tree species best germinate en masse). Despite their great size in 1960, today none of those ancient camel-thorns are still standing. All were killed by the feeding pressure of too many elephants after 1960.

There were also smaller forests of Commiphora (Kanniedood) trees growing on sandy hillsides. They too have now all gone.

Graham also recorded the multiple isolated occurrences of various quite common Acacia tree species; African ebonies (Dyospyros); and many others, that were commonly scattered and/or growing on anthills throughout the Ngamiland game reserve habitats between Chobe and Maun. They, too, have all disappeared!

The once common and ancient Baobab tree – some said to be 5000 years old – have mostly already disappeared; or they are damaged beyond redemption.

I, too, can vouch for all Graham Child’s statements about habitat change in Botswana, caused by too many elephants. In 1960-64 I was a young game ranger stationed in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park which adjoins the Chobe. I, too, have seen this all happening – but I did not measure the changes (as Dr Child did).

The elephant carrying capacity of any habitat (or game reserve) can be defined as:

The maximum number of elephants that a habitat can carry without the elephants causing permanent damage to the vegetation.

What I call the sustainable bench-mark elephant habitat carrying capacity can only be measured when a habitat is stable, undamaged and healthy. And there are very few such undamaged and healthy elephant habitats left in Africa today.

This authentic history – of massive habitat damage caused by too many elephants – recorded by reputable people like Graham Child – tells us that Botswana has been carrying far too many elephants since before 1960.

Absolutely nothing has been done about Botswana’s excessive elephant population – ever. Elephant bulls have been hunted on license for many years (prior to 2014); but that had no effect on elephant population numbers. The regular reduction of breeding cows is the only management activity that can reduce population growth. That means culling!



And the fact that no population reduction management has ever taken place is a major cause of today’s elephant deaths in Botswana.

Extrapolating backwards from the year 2000 – when the official elephant count in Botswana was 120 604 – and when the average annual elephant population incremental-rate was 8 percent – I have determined that the elephant population in Botswana in the year 1960 was, roughly, 7500. Today, Botswana admits to carrying at least 130 000 elephants – which is seventeen times greater than the overall elephant population I have calculated for 1960. And in 1960 the elephant population was then already excessive – which is I why I say that Botswana is, today, carrying at least 20 times too many elephants.

In the year 2013, Botswana’s official elephant count was 207 000 – which causes me to question today’s estimate of only 130 000. Are we all to believe that between 2013 and today, the elephant population of Botswana has declined by 77 000? I don’t believe it. Where are all the carcasses? But, let’s not stall this argument on such niceties. Let’s accept the figure 130 000. Which means we also have to accept the estimate that Botswana is currently carrying 17 times too many elephants. Whichever figure you accept, it is clearly infinitely more than the sustainable elephant carrying capacity of the Botswana elephant habitats. And that is the important conclusion we have to make!

Another thing we have to understand about the sustainable elephant carrying capacity of a habitat – and this factor is unmeasurable – is the fact that as a habitat degrades (which happens when it is forced to continuously carry an excessive elephant population), the carrying capacity declines.

Why does the habitat degrade? It degrades because, first of all, the excessive numbers of elephant eat into extinction all their favourite food plants. Then they eat into extinction the less favoured, but still palatable, other plant species. Finally, they will eat any plant left that is not poisonous… simply because they have to eat something.

This state of affairs has been variously in operation in Botswana since before 1960 – getting worse and worse every year. That means Botswana’s elephant habitats have been continuously degrading for more than 60 years! And, in my estimation, this is a major reason why elephants are dying in Botswana today. The habitats have been abused for far too long. They are now in such poor health they cannot produce enough food to keep the massively excessive elephant population numbers alive any more. I am, quite frankly, amazed that it has taken so long to reach this cataclysmic state.

I sincerely believe that the maximum number of elephants that any game reserve in southern Africa should be expected to carry, should be no greater than one elephant per five square kilometres. This is the bench-mark elephant carrying capacity for both Hwange and Kruger National Parks (c.1960). This means that Hwange National Park is carrying 20 times too many elephants today; Gonarezhou is carrying 14 times too many; and Kruger (if the Kruger National Park population really is 32 000 [ref. Joubert]) is carrying 10 times too many. So, I see this over-population-of-elephants problem as not just affecting Botswana. If we carry on mismanaging the elephant populations in all these game reserves, as we are doing at this time, we are going to suffer large-scale elephant die-offs – sooner or later – in every single one of them.

Last year I stated that I believed the Botswana elephant population – as listed on the Great Elephant Census (GEC- 2016) report – had been cooked by the authors. Why? Because they are animal rightists and they wanted to create the illusion that international poachers posed a great threat to Botswana’s reduced elephant numbers. Their purpose was to stop the hunting of elephants in Botswana; and to make sure the closed legal international market in elephant ivory was not re-opened.

I also stated that I believed the Botswana mega-population of elephants (which includes the elephants of North East Namibia; South East Angola; Southern Zambia; Hwange in Western Zimbabwe; and in northern Botswana itself) numbered in excess of 200 000. And, that being the case, I believed that some 100 000 of those elephants needed to be harvested… immediately… to start off with. When considering this recommendation, readers should take into account the fact that elephants are dying in Botswana today from starvation; AND the fact that if you reduced the current overall mega elephant population numbers by half, the habitats will then have twice as much food available to feed those elephants that remained. But 100 000 would not be enough. All these populations should ultimately be reduced to a numerical level that enables the habitats to carry the remaining numbers – sustainably – succoured by a recovering habitat. And because the current sustainable elephant carrying capacities of their habitats have been seriously compromised, after decades of abuse, these elephant populations should not be allowed to increase above a density level any more than one elephant per five square kilometres.

In ecological terms, we have to consider that our national parks were not set aside for the uncontrolled proliferation of elephants. They were set aside to maintain our national parks’ species diversities. And, because every single one of our national parks is now carrying an excessive elephant population, that (in itself) tells us that the elephants are posing a threat to each park’s biological diversity. That, in turn, means – from an elephant management point of view – the elephant populations of each of our national parks need to be drastically reduced to a number that is well below the sustainable elephant carrying capacity.

Our conservation (aka wildlife management) priorities are first for the good and proper management of the soil, because without soil no plants can grow (and without plants there will be no animals); our second conservation priority must be for the good and proper management of the plants because, as I said before, without plants there would be no animals; and our third (and last) priority consideration must be for the good and proper management of the animals. This does NOT mean that animals are un-important, it means that animals are less-important than the soil and the plants. This little mental exercise puts man’s wildlife management priorities into their true and proper perspective. Thus, it must follow, that consideration for the health and vigour of our national park habitats is much more important than trying to keep every elephant-in-creation alive.

If my evaluation of the Botswana elephant situation is correct, at the end of the current elephant die-off this year, I will still recommend that even more elephants be taken off from those that remain. And, if the major die-off does not take place this year. Tighten your belts. And wait. It will happen next year or the one thereafter. One thing is for sure! It will happen!

And if we refuse to address ourselves seriously to solving this elephant over-population problem, we will be responsible for turning our national parks into very low species-diversity deserts.

Ron Thomson. CEO – the TRUE GREEN ALLIANCE


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Re: Elephant Management and Poaching in Other African Countries

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Nonsense!


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Re: Elephant Management and Poaching in Other African Countries

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I tend to agree with Klippie. Do 400 elephants all die more or less in the same time span if they are dying from hunger?
it means that animals are less-important than soil and the plants.
Without animals the soil would be poor, hard and with little or no plant variety!


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Re: Elephant Management and Poaching in Other African Countries

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Botswana gets first test results on elephant deaths

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Aerial view of the carcass of one of the approximately 350 elephants that have been found dead for unknown reasons in the Okavango Delta

By Reuters• 10 July 2020

GABORONE, July 10 (Reuters) - Botswana said on Friday it had received test results from samples sent to Zimbabwe to determine the cause of death of hundreds of elephants but is waiting for more results from South Africa next week before sharing findings with the public.

Wildlife officials are trying to determine what is killing the elephants about two months after the first bodies were discovered. They have ruled out poaching and anthrax among possible causes.

Officials told reporters near the Okavango Delta on Thursday that they had now verified 281 elephant carcasses and that the deaths were concentrated in an area of 8,000 square km that is home to about 18,000 elephants.

“We have to wait for another set of results and reconcile the two to see if they are saying the same thing before we come to a definitive conclusion,” Oduetse Kaboto, a senior official in the environment and tourism ministry, said in a televised briefing.

“We are hoping the second set of results will come in next week and that’s when we should be able to communicate to the public the cause of deaths.”

Although the number of deaths so far represents a fraction of the estimated 130,000 elephants in Botswana, there are fears more could die if authorities cannot establish the cause soon.

Chris Foggin, from Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust, which conducted the tests on elephant samples from Botswana, said only that country’s government could share the findings.

The Botswana wildlife department has said the government contacted neighbours Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and Zambia but they had not seen similar elephant deaths.

Africa’s overall elephant population is declining due to poaching, but Botswana, home to almost a third of the continent’s elephants, has seen numbers grow from 80,000 in the late 1990s. (Reporting by Brian Benza, Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Janet Lawrence)


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Re: Elephant Management and Poaching in Other African Countries

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