Zimbabwe to cull 200 elephants as the country faces unprecedented drought leading to food shortages.
The Zimbabwean Minister of Environment stated that the country has more elephants than necessary. The Zimbabwean government has instructed the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) to begin the process of culling elephants. This move is also aimed at managing the rapidly increasing elephant population, AFP reported on September 13.
Authorities will hunt 200 elephants in human-wildlife conflict areas, including Hwange, home to Zimbabwe’s largest national park, which hosts an estimated 100,000 elephants and has the second-largest elephant population in the world after Botswana. Thanks to conservation efforts, Hwange is home to 65,000 elephants, exceeding its carrying capacity by more than four times. The last time Zimbabwe culled elephants was in 1988.
Zimbabwe currently has the second-largest elephant population in the world. (Photo: Global Nation).
Last month, neighboring Namibia also announced that it had culled 160 wild animals as part of a plan to eliminate over 700, including 83 elephants, in response to the worst drought in decades. Zimbabwe and Namibia are among the Southern African countries declaring a state of emergency due to drought.
Approximately 42% of the Zimbabwean population lives in poverty, according to United Nations estimates. Authorities indicate that around 6 million people will require food assistance from November to March when food is the scarcest. The decision to cull elephants for food has faced criticism from some experts, partly because elephants are a key species that attract tourists.
“The government must adopt more sustainable and environmentally friendly measures to address the drought without harming tourism,” said Farai Maguwu, director of the Centre for Natural Resource Governance. “They risk alienating tourists on ethical grounds. Living elephants provide more benefits than dead ones. This needs to be stopped as it is highly unethical.”
However, Chris Brown, a conservationist and executive director of the Namibian Chamber of Environment, argued that elephants would destroy habitats if allowed to proliferate unchecked. They can indeed devastate ecosystems and significantly impact less well-known species.
The decision to cull elephants in Namibia has been criticized by conservation experts and animal rights organization PETA as shortsighted, cruel, and ineffective. However, the government stated that the 83 elephants killed were only a small fraction of the 20,000 elephants in the arid country, helping to alleviate pressure on grazing areas and water supplies.
There are currently three surviving elephant species: African savanna elephants, African forest elephants, and Asian elephants. According to Animal Fact Guide, African elephants are the largest land mammals in the world, weighing up to 6 tons, measuring up to 7.5 meters in length, and standing up to 3.3 meters tall (at the shoulder). Asian elephants are the second largest, while African forest elephants are the smallest of the three species.
