Elephants

Unless someone lives in an undisturbed tribal culture, they know what an elephant is.  Elephants are extremely popular animals with their mammoth sizes, intelligence, and funny noses.  But elephants are also targets for their ivory, their labor potential, and various other things.  Due to all this, elephants are endangered.  Tired of hearing me say so many species are threatened?  Well, I’m tired of saying it, but, it’s important to know the facts.

There are two species of elephant commonly recognized, though it’s been argued that there may be a third.  The African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana) is the largest of the elephants averaging 2.2 to 4 m (7-13 ft) at the shoulder.  They have large ears, a concave back, two extensions at the tip of their trunk, and more wrinkled skin than the Asian elephant.  Bush elephants can be found on the savanna, scrub, or traveling through deserts.

The African forest elephant (Loxodonia cyclotis) is the smallest of the three though otherwise very similar to the bush elephant.  As its name suggests, these animals can be found in dense forests, which likely accounts for their smaller size, which reaches a maximum of 2.5 m (8 ft).

The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is slightly smaller with smaller ear, a more flattened back, smoother skin, and one extension at the tip of the trunk.  These elephants can reach heights of between 2 to 3.2 m (7.3 to 10 ft) at the shoulder.  There are three subspecies: E. m. maximus from Sri Lanka, E. m. indicus of India, and E. m. sumatranus from the island of Sumatra.

Elephants are herbivores that can eat up to 150 kg (330 lbs) a day.  As you can imagine, a herd of elephants can eat quite a lot, which could cause a lot of damage if they stayed in one place.  However, elephants are fairly nomadic and go on seasonal migrations.  This is, of course, when they are not constricted by fencing large or human “developments”.  The inability to migrate can also cause overpopulation problems.  I mentioned some of these issues in “The Fence: Friend of Foe? Part 2“, which sometimes leads to management practices such as culling or other birth control methods such as immunocontraceptives.

African bush elephants have highly social structures while the forest and Asian elephants have smaller social groups.  In the case of any of these species, females live in tight-knit matrilineal family groups that can range from a mother and her offspring to several related adult females and their offspring.  During the dry season sometimes various groups may come together to form a clan that works together to defend their seasonal range.

Adult males, on the other hand, often live alone or with small groups of other males, though on occasion African bush elephant males can form large groups.  Older adult males often control the behavior of young males, which have been known to become aggressive when left on their own.  After puberty males go into a yearly state called musth which is known as a period of increased testosterone.  This is visibly observed by a fluidic secretion from the temporal glands on their faces.  They often become very aggressive, particularly toward other males, while musth appears to signal a healthy male of breeding age to females.

Intelligent animals, elephants are capable of learning from humans as well as other elephants, using tools, and having strong memories.  Because of this, elephants have long been part of human culture.  Both Asian and African elephants have been tamed for their use in war, for labor, and for entertainment, such as circuses and rides.  Due to their close proximity to humans,  being used as tools, these animals have sometimes been subject to cruel treatment that has ranged from being confined in small spaces, lack of food, and physical abuse.  India protects them from such harm by The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960, which was created in an effort to prevent “unnecessary” pain or suffering.

Elephants have been known to destroy human crops by consuming or trampling them, which often leads to confrontations.  However, young males with no older adult and elephants in musth have also been known to attack people and destroy homes.  Still, most of the problems surrounding human/elephant encounters can be attributed to destruction of their habitat, providing fewer resources and space.

In addition, elephants are targeted by poachers for the ivory of their tusks, which are used for decoration such carvings, jewelry, and knife hilts.  The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) listed the Asian elephant in 1975 and the African elephant in 1990.  The purpose of this was to prevent international trade of animals and their products depending on the appendix the animal is listed on.  However, in certain cases there has been an allowance of certain ivory stockpiles.  The price for elephant tusks on the black market is high and the area most of these animals live in is surrounded by people in or near poverty-level, making poaching a tempting consideration.  The other major threat is habitat destruction and fragmentation, which is one of the leading causes of threats and extinction no matter the species.

There are various levels of protection on elephants all over the world, which in some areas has helped their populations recover.  Still, all elephant species are considered threatened.  There are various organizations to help in their protection, either from poaching, old land mines (which cause injuries and death), abuse, and fragmentation.  One such organization is Elephant Aid International lead by one of the globe’s leading elephant experts, Carol Buckley.  This organization works to educate the general populous as well as elephant handlers, and care for elephants that have been injured, abused, or abandoned.  Buckley has also opened The Elephant Sanctuary, located in Tennessee, U.S., which is a natural refuge for rescued elephants.  Not only do both these organizations have social media sites but the Elevision blog/eNewsletter allows for easy access to information for anyone interested in the work done.

The Controversy of Culling

I’ve mentioned culling very briefly several times, so I think it’s time to elaborate on this wildlife management practice.  Out of the many various methods and techniques out there, culling is perhaps one of the most controversial.

First and foremost, for anyone unaware of what culling is, it is a method of population control that requires the removal of breeding animals.  This usually implies that the selected animals are killed in order to both prevent reproduction as well as reduce the current population.  Hunting can fall within this category, but the larger controversy surrounds mass slaughter of animals by professionals.  This is done for many species but one of the most well known species sometimes targeting with culling is the elephant.

The South African government used culling to control its elephant population up until the 1990s.  This practice had since been put on hold due to a large international public outcry, though there are private ranches and businesses that may still do this.  I had been informed while in Africa that impala, which are a common antelope species, are often culled.  The practice of culling has since been brought up many times in this country as the elephant population surged.

When it comes to African elephants, those in charge of implementing the culling would hire professional hunters.  Instead of just breeding members of certain herds being selected, South Africa would target the entire herd regardless of age or sex.  This may seem even more cruel than the culling of breeding members itself, but I learned that the reason for this development is that the baby elephants would literally stay at the site of the culling and cry for days on end.

Elephants are very social animals and herds often have wide age ranges.  Baby elephants are taught the correct way to behave by observation of older members as well as being corrected.  They learn to take care of young by observation as well as aiding in the raising of younger elephants, learn migration paths, how to defend against predators, etc.  Without older members of the herd to learn from, young elephants can grow up to be aggressive and destructive.

When elephants were culled in South Africa the meat would often be given to poor local villages and the ivory would be sold legally under strict guidelines.

Here in the United States culling also occurs, of which legal hunting can be considered a method.  There is a large controversy regarding wild horses which are often rounded up, also regardless of age or sex.  Many of these horses are then auctioned off for private ownership, food, or other commercial uses.  (It should be noted that culling of wild horses takes place in many countries in addition to the U.S., such as Australia and Iceland.)  In addition to this, various agencies, such as those in Ohio, may use culling methods to control deer populations.  Herds of bison and elk can also sometimes be targeted.  Flocks of birds located around airports can be culled with the reasoning of preventing bird-airplane collisions.  In Australia, the practice of culling has been used to control kangaroo populations near areas of high human populations.

Why does culling occur?  As I mentioned, it is a wildlife management practice aimed at controlling populations.  Populations that are deemed too large for the ecosystem can disrupt the delicate food chain balance by eating more than their “fair share,” depriving other animals of food and eventually starving themselves.  For example, in the Kruger National Park in South Africa, the carrying capacity for elephants was figured at about 8,000.  Once culling was discontinued, the population swelled to 16,000.  The elephants, lacking most predators and unable to partake in their migration, have been eating so much vegetation that they have been resorting to stripping trees of their bark, effectively killing them.  This, of course, reduces the food available for other species and can also cause more conflict among the overcrowed elephants.

Larger populations of animals also mean more run-ins with human neighbors, sometimes in the way of automobile collisions as well as the stealing of food (such as eating people’s gardens, raiding farms, and going through trash).  Culling can also occur if a population is diseased.  The point would be to reduce the number of infected members in order to prevent contamination of healthy members of the species.

In any area the practice of culling creates controversy.  Many opponents consider it cruel and unethical.  Elephants, for example, are chased by helicopter and are tranquilized with a powerful paralytic agent before being killed, leaving them conscious for a period of time.  While this is done as quickly as possible to avoid unnecessary pain and fear, this method is used so that the meat is not contaminated by other drugs that would be inedible, while at the same time making sure the animals are killed instantly by shots instead of merely wounded as they run away.  Other animals such as horses may be rounded up and corralled, an experience many of them had previous not had, resulting in fear as they are enclosed together, which then can often lead to panic and the injury of other members of the herd.

Not managing wildlife populations can lead to serious problems like those I mentioned above.  Yet is there another way?  What are our options?  And really, why is it that this responsibility has fallen to humans in the first place?  Next week I’ll talk about a suggested alternative to culling, immunocontraceptives.  Further discussion centered around the idea of humans controlling wildlife population size for ecological balance will follow suit.