Managing Elephant Populations
Elephant culling
South Africa has recently been deciding whether to cull 6,000 elephants. They say Kruger National Park has too many elephants causing damage and the only solution is to kill them. The last elephant cull was in 1995 when the slaughter was stopped due to public outrage. Born Free is determined to fight elephant culling and promote humane management alternatives such as relocation and fertility control.
“It’s almost impossible to imagine the carnage of an elephant cull. Terrified families are herded together by a helicopter. One by one they are killed by a high-calibre shot to the head and butchered for ivory, meat and skin. Traumatized calves, squealing in fear, are forced into crates to be sold to circuses and zoos. ”
Will Travers, Chief Executive
Elephant fertility control
This is cutting edge technology which involves female elephants being given a contraceptive to temporarily prevent them getting pregnant and giving birth. This is a long-term and cost-effective solution to ‘too many elephants’, proven to be successful in a number of pilot projects and may have wider application. Born Free is assisting field trials of the contraceptive in Kenya.
Elephant relocation
Born Free has funded several successful elephant relocations in Kenya from areas of over-crowding to places of safety. A team of experts dart elephants with anaesthetic, move them into custom-made crates, revive them with an antidote, and load them onto trucks. Post-release monitoring has shown most elephants respond well to relocation.
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