Elephant Management in Addo Elephant National Park

[Toko]

Addo elephant contraception going ahead

September 10 2014 at 06:00pm
By Fayroush Ludick

East London - The use of contraceptives for elephants as a management tool, initiated in Addo Elephant National Park last year, is continuing, with the latest round of vaccinations carried out at the end of June.

The initial vaccinations were administered to elephants in the Park’s Nyathi and Kuzuko sections last May, following the approval of the SANParks elephant management plan by the Department of Environmental Affairs in April.

The initial vaccination was followed by two boosters in July and August, and the elephant cows will now be vaccinated annually. The contraceptive is reversible and the cow will be able to conceive once she is no longer being vaccinated.

SANParks’ regional ecologist, Angela Gaylard, says: “These two sub-populations of Addo’s elephants are the only ones which are currently realistic and feasible to contracept, as they are relatively small populations. It becomes more complex once one deals with larger herds, such as in the park’s Main Camp and Colchester sections.

“The operation has run very smoothly to date. The main challenge from an operational side is finding all the individuals when they are in thick vegetation. Fortunately, the individuals from both the Nyathi and Kuzuko herds are normally close to one another, making the aerial vaccination that much easier,” Gaylard said.

The only other national park where contraceptives were administered has been in Kruger National Park, where trials were run in the late 1990s.

Addo is home to about 600 elephants in the Main Camp/Colchester, Nyathi and Kuzuko areas, growing at a rate of five to seven percent annually. As there has never been an attempt to control the population in the past, SANParks has consistently bought additional land to alleviate the impact of the expanding population on the parks vegetation.



Elephant cows have higher energy requirements when they are pregnant or lactating, and it is hoped they will use resources differently when they are not calving. SANParks also hopes to slow down the rate of the elephants’ impact on the vegetation.

[Richprins]

Good stuff!

It is EXTREMELY expensive in all aspects, though, which caused problems in Kruger, a much bigger area with less control, unfortunately!

Hope it works well in Addo!

Elephant are hyper-intelligent...

[Toko]

It's done also in Tembe

[Richprins]

Addo Elephant National Park Elephant Immunocontraception Programme

Featured in Citizen Newspaper on 26 August 2021

By Dr David Zimmermann BVSc; MSc (Wildlife Diseases); BSc Senior Veterinarian: Veterinary Wildlife Services: Port Elizabeth South African National Parks

Historically elephants were widespread in Africa, from the Mediterranean in the north to the Cape coast in the south. In southern Africa, local San inhabitants led early European settlers into the interior, where they encountered herds of elephants. This area is still rich in San rock art depicting elephants - work by Paterson and Parkington (2007) concluded that the San had been “symbiotically, symbolically and spiritually linked to elephants”, over tens of thousands of years. They did not see elephants as a commodity, but unfortunately, with the settlers came the demand for ivory – elephants were seen as a “valuable” commodity in Europe and there was a perceived endless resource in Africa.

Hunters, traders, and settlers in the hinterland took their toll on the elephant populations.

Of the estimated 3000 elephants that roamed the Cape Floristic Region in pre-colonial times only 30-50 individuals remained by the early 1900s. They had taken refuge in the Knysna Forests - their range decreased from a diversity of habitat types to only the afro-montane and surrounding fynbos - suboptimal habitat for elephants.

In contrast, the neighbouring Addo elephant population, who were also persecuted for their tusks, evaded the hunters in the thickets of the Sundays River Valley - optimal elephant habitat. By the time of the proclamation of Addo Elephant National Park (AENP), in 1931, only eleven elephants remained. A secure elephant-proof fence was erected in 1954, which has successfully protected and contained the elephants - since then the population has grown from generation to generation.

Elephants are a keystone species capable of causing major ecosystem changes. When confined, natural processes such as migration and dispersion are no longer possible. For conservation managers, it is important to try mimic these natural processes or to slow the population growth rates. With the expansion of AENP, over the last two decades, elephants have been given access to areas on which they used to historically range. Unfortunately, even with this expansion and reintroductions, the population is still growing at an unsustainable rate for the size of the park. In order to slow the growth rate, immunocontraception was implemented in 2013.

Immunocontraception is a non-hormonal form of contraception which is a safe, effective way of reducing female fertility. It is based on the same principles of disease prevention through vaccination. A non-cellular capsule known as the zona pellucida (ZP) surrounds all mammalian eggs. This capsule consists of several glycoproteins, some of which facilitate the attachment of the sperm to the egg during the process of fertilization. The immunocontraceptive vaccine is produced by harvesting the zona pellucida from the ovaries of pigs (Porcine zona pellucida or “PZP”), purified and injected into the muscle of the target female animal, in this case elephants. The immune system detects the PZP as foreign material and is stimulated to produce antibodies against the proteins in the vaccine. These antibodies attach to the sperm receptors on the ZP of her eggs and prevents fertilization. The cow does not fall pregnant and she will continue to show an oestrous cycle.

Capture or immobilisation of cows is not required for vaccine administration as it can be done remotely by means of ‘marker darts’ that drops out soon after injection. The dart leaves a dye mark on the animal, thereby enabling the dartsman to distinguish between vaccinated and unvaccinated animals. At Addo the vaccine administration is done from a helicopter over as short a time possible, to minimize disturbance to the population.

Alternative management strategies, to create connectivity by means of corridors between protected areas, is ongoing. Well-connected subpopulations maintain themselves by colonizing empty niches, exchanging genetic material, and adapting to changing environments. One can only hope, that in the future, we will rekindle our symbiotic, symbolic and spiritual link to elephants; and have them roaming across the landscape again between Knysna and Addo. Until such time that these connections are re-established, immunocontraception will remain a humane method of elephant population control.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/addo-ele ... keDw%3D%3D

[Lisbeth]

Sounds like a good solution, but a heck of a job