Debates on Elephant Culling

Debates on Elephant pull offingIvy TerryThe Controversy of Elephant Culling squeeze and media birth pushed the idea that elephant peoples atomic number 18 scourgeened, diminished by habitat mischief, poach and a variety of other reasons. In the 1930s habitat loss and heavy ivory poaching had decreased Stabooh Africas elephant nation from 3-5 one thousand million to around ergocalciferol,000 (Harmse, Riana). Since then, through protection, laws and regulations the elephant population in South Africa has increased dramatically, to the organize of overabundance. Due to the recent prosperity in the elephant population, measures to control their ecology is essential to the health and nearlybeing of the ecosystem, neighboring species, and the pr scourtion of elephant-human conflict. In South Africas Kruger put under Park, in particular, this wildlife way is a necessity in forbearing a successfully thriving approximate range. There energize been m each ways Kruger has move in solving the elephant population issue. Including take over control in fe staminates, birth control in males, relocation and the establishment of corridors, hardly the most habitual in past years has been culling (Harmse, Riana). Culling is a controversial subject when it comes to man geezerhoodment because it entails physically killing elephants in a population to reduce its size. So controversial in event that it was outlawed in Kruger in 1995 nevertheless then belatedly reintroduced back as a management method, in smaller scale (Harmse, Riana).Kruger today has around 13,050 elephants and this population is growing exponentially (Role of Bull Elephant). With lack of predators and an abundance of artificial and natural watering holes, as well as other natural resources, there is no commanding the rate of population growth of these animals (Harmse, Riana). This growth is an imminent problem for the special K as well as its surrounding areas. First of all, elephants move i n herds, this means they have a substantial effect on beautify and tree cover in the environment. These herds are also constantly moving, cover charge and destroying vase amounts of land per day (Role of Bull Elephant). Kruger is 7,523 square miles, though this seems large, it is not becoming space to support such a population of large mammals (Harmse, Riana). This issue of space contributes to greater and more frequent human-elephant conflict as well as the destruction of special K boundary fences and more frequent tame raids (Role of Bull Elephant). There have been many other suggested and tested methods of elephant population control in Kruger but none have been turn out to be as effective as annual culls. Contraceptives in male or female elephants prove to be costly, invasive, time consuming and not always successful. Relocation resulted in elephants coming back through the position boundary as well as being massively expensive and dangerous for both parties. Finally, t he introduction of corridors from park to park has shown to be similarly expensive and there is simply no land available to pull to this sort of expansion (Harmse, Riana). It is out of the ashes of these other methods of management that culling was reintroduced to Kruger. Currently 500 to 600 elephants are killed in Kruger each year in order to keep the population as close to 13,000 as possible (Elephants To Cull or non to Cull That Is the Question). After these elephants are killed they are immediately take away and taken to processing locations to which all parts of the animal are apply meat for food, bones for jewelry and tools, organs for medicine and medical look into etc. (Harmse, Riana).Though culling is the most widely used form of elephant population management used in Kruger today it is also the most contested. from each one year 950, 000 people visit Kruger and these visitors account for millions of dollars worth of income for the park p.a. (Harmse, Riana). Obvious ly any detriment to this tourism would be to the disadvantage of the park and elephant culling, even if hidden from the public, has proven to cause a drop in visitors (Harmse, Riana). Culling in the park is not only affecting tourism but the well being of the elephants as well. Elephants are one of the most tender mammals on the planet and one could only imagine the psychological equipment casualty that occurs to materialisation after a culling. Typically, hunters go in and wipe out the elders of the herd, leaving the young (Harmse, Riana). This terribly disrupts the age structure of the population by removing the experience necessary to raise the elephant young. This has been known to cause said young to grow up as rogue elephants, removing themselves from the herd, wreaking havoc on the park and neighboring areas (Elephants To Cull or not to Cull That Is the Question). These elephants have to be killed due to them posing such a significant threat to humans. Apart from being sens itive, elephants are intelligent creatures. They have been known to drop unawares from herd to herd by using low frequency grunts rattling similar to how whales communicate. Therefore, if elephants are culled in one area others know to the highest degree it, this aggravates them and they can get very frightened, leading to panic and further impairment to the environment and danger to humans (Elephants To Cull or Not to Cull That Is the Question). Another major concern with culling in elephant populations is the fact that professional hunters are not always used. This is a considerable issue. These kills needs to be lite and fast, injured elephants are very dangerous, and their cries cause more stress to the rest herd and can provoke permanent psychological damage on the young. Quick removal of the bodies is also very important due to the fact that remaining elephants often will go back to see their dead companions and this puts even more stress on the animal (Elephants To Cul l or Not to Cull That Is the Question). Finally, elephants have a keen sense of smell. So much so that they can smell elephants that have been in distress, beginning on the ground, and other signs of death. Elephants are warded off by these smells and will no longer range in areas where a cull has taken place, even years after the event. This can pose problems if the area had been a migratory route for the herd. The elephants would have to take alternate routes to avoid the area, potentially transport them into contact with farms and villages as well as the possibility of them never determination their traditional feeding grounds, leading to starvation (Elephants To Cull or Not to Cull That Is the Question).The culling of elephants as a management approach in Kruger home(a) Park is a widely debated topic. Personally I believe that the culling of elephants in Kruger or in any other location should be outlawed. I am not necessarily against culling all together but with such a sen sitive animal as the elephant it is not appropriate. There are other circumstances in which culling may prove useful and not be of such detriment to the species. Authoritize in the United Kingdom, for example, have recently started regulated culling of badgers. The massive local badger population has been thought to open tuberculosis to neighboring cow herds. In response, two major culls have taken place, these culls have proven to lower the tuberculosis in herds without having any detriment to the age structure, mental health or the badger populations general well being (Second Year of crucify Culling Begins). For this reason it is of the utmost wideness that before any sort of culling occurs a thorough analysis of family structure, age structure, mental health and behaviors is looked into on an species to species basis. From there, other strategies can be weighed ground on population size and situation. Culling is a viable option for population management but on a situational basis and in term of the elephant it is inappropriate.Work CitedElephant Population Management. Kruger Park News. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov.2014.Elephants To Cull or Not to Cull That Is the Question. Kruger Park Times. N.p.,n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.Harmse, Riana. Elephant Population Management In Kruger. Olifants Reserve,Kruger topic Park, Limpopo, South Africa. Aug. 2014. Lecture.Role of Bull Elephant. Elephant Culling. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.Second Year of Badger Culling Begins. BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.