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Posted on 04/23/2017 12:07:28 PM PDT by Sean_Anthony
According to an aerial count in 2014 there are around 44,000 elephants at Hwange
Elephant numbers across Africa have been declining rapidly under the onslaught of ivory poachers. However, one national park faces an entirely different problem. Hwange’s elephant population just keeps growing. But what, on the face of it, might appear to be good news has become an equally serious problem, one that is more a threat to the elephants long-term survival than ivory poaching. Quite simply, Hwange has too many elephants reports Martin Dunn.
Zimbabwe’s Hwange National park is a six thousand square mile area founded in the 1920s as a hunting preserve. Right at the start waterholes were dug and pumps were installed to increase big game.
Evidently the elephants know where to go to avoid poachers.
Just like deer around here know which side of the “POSTED” sign is the place to spend the daylight hours during deer season.
They need some serious science to come in and look for a solution. Pumping water was never meant to be a long term solution.
If they turned off the pumps slowly, one pump at a time per several months, the elephants would go somewhere else to look for water.
either that or riot because they aren’t getting welfare anymore
LOL!!!!
>>Evidently the elephants know where to go to avoid poachers.<<
Well, now there are too many so... poached elephant for dinner! Yum!
The elephants ideally need to be relocated out of the country since migration routes are also full and I’m not sure only some of the water can be turned off. There have been projects to move them before but that was a few hundred when the overpopulation problem was much less severe.
You would think Zimbabwe could get some quick cash selling elephants to nations that want to up their herd populations. Sure, there is a moving expense but if you need elephants, it can’t be THAT hard to move a dozen, can it? It just takes money.
Send them to Chappaqua or wherever Hil’s planting her derrière these days. After all, she’s been saving and protecting elephants forever.
“Send them to Chappaqua or wherever Hil’s planting her derrière these days. After all, she’s been saving and protecting elephants forever.”
You got the party mixed up. She’s been saving and protecting the jackasses all these years.
About 48 years ago, a Giant grocery store in McLean, VA had cans of elephant and tiger meat in their exotic section. No kidding, it was weird.
If a North Dakota rancher could move 100,000 head of cattle to Texas with some horses surely the Africans could figure out a way to move a dozen elephants.
How much for a non-resident tag?
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It’s not widely known, but King Babar of the Elephants was actually called Babar the Conquerer...
I remember about thirty years ago when South Africa had too many elephants. Newsreels showed soldiers with FN-FALs shooting them down. I guess moving them is not an option at times.
Cull the herd...flood the market with ivory...drive down the price of ivory...reduce poaching. Win-win.
What they need to do is determine the ideal size of the herd, and sell enough hunting licenses for big bucks to keep the herd that size. Then use the money to keep up the park and stop poachers. But this is Mugabe’s commie hellhole, so fat chance.
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