Environment minister says country has more elephants than it needs while critics of hunt say they are a major tourist drawcard

Environment minister says country has more elephants than it needs while critics of hunt say they are a major tourist drawcard

Zimbabwe will cull 200 elephants as it faces an unprecedented drought that has led to food shortages, a move that tackle a ballooning population of the animals, the country’s wildlife authority has said.

Zimbabwe had “more elephants than it needed”, the environment minister said in parliament on Wednesday, adding that the government had instructed the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) to begin the culling process.

The 200 elephants would be hunted in areas where they had clashed with humans, including Hwange, home of Zimbabwe’s largest natural reserve, said the director general of ZimParks, Fulton Mangwanya.

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Zimbabwe is home to an estimated 100,000 elephants – the second-biggest population in the world after Botswana.

Due to conservation efforts, Hwange is home to 65,000 of the animals, more than four times its capacity, according to ZimParks. Zimbabwe last culled elephants in 1988.

  • @QuarterSwedeEnglish
    17•4 days ago

    I think I draw the line at killing anything that forms strong life long family bonds, this includes Elephants. We need to find another way to keep their numbers down.

    • Flying SquidMEnglish
      11•4 days ago

      It seems like it’s an issue of either culling them now or letting them starve to death. What other option is there? Where could they go? Climate change will just make this worse.

      • Nougat
        6•4 days ago

        Headline makes it sound like, “Well, we’re going to have to eat elephants.”

        • Flying SquidMEnglish
          6•4 days ago

          That’s why it’s worth reading past the headline.

    • @[email protected]English
      5•4 days ago

      Agreed! I feel like now, while we’re thinking about these very charismatic creatures, might be a good time to remind folks about cattle, who form strong social and familial bonds

      https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159114003128

      We show that the dam and calf express behaviour suggestive of a strong bond even in the absence of nursing.

      https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cattle-family-bovidae

      Cattle are naturally social animals and form small herds, the composition of which varies according to the species

      The entire herd not only feeds and moves around as a colossal single unit, but individual animals will also gather around an injured or sick animal if it is threatened by predators

      https://animalequality.org/blog/2024/08/19/dairy-industry-hurts-cows/

      To keep the milk flowing, farmers artificially inseminate her about once per year.

      A strong bond forms between the mother and her baby immediately after birth. Within a day or two, the mother cow will be separated from her calf. She will cry for her missing baby for days.

      A male calf is considered useless to the dairy industry because he cannot produce milk. If he isn’t raised and sold for beef, this baby will likely be sold to the veal industry.

      Food for thought