“So, elephants in one area may be locally extinct, but a few hundred kilometers down the road, they are heavily over populated, to put it, basically. And that's the situation around Africa,” said Richard Sowry who has been a section ranger in the far north of the Kruger National Park since 2002.
“The density of elephants up here is high enough that every single tree has got what I term unsustainable impact on it in this riverine forest,” he said.
The African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana) is an endangered species and the largest extant land animal on the planet. Though it has been extirpated from most if its historic range, the species can and often does proliferate in protected areas. And their impact there can be profound.
“You can imagine," said Sowry, "They're pushing over trees, which then becomes habitat for one thing, it also becomes a habitat loss for another thing. So, if they rip up a creeper and pull-out thicket, that's habitat loss for a Robin, but it becomes habitat for something like an impala or a zebra. So, they are engineers of the system.”
Though their total population in the park is contested with estimates ranging from around 32,000 to over 48,000, it is undeniable that there are now more of these engineers here than ever before.
“The more formal records start after about 1900 just after the park was formed, when there were no records of any elephant in the park. And that was after a period where there had been intense hunting of elephant by people,” said Sowry.
He explains that before the formation of the park, any elephants found here were hunted away. But when Kruger was established, that hunting (for the most part) stopped.
“And then with time, the elephant populations grew until about the late 60s, early 70s, when they reached about 7,500 spread out across the park,” he said.
It was around this time that park staff began to worry about the growing elephant population and thus decided that they needed to be managed through culling.
“So hunting is a natural thing conducted by humans for resources and that sort of thing, you hunt an animal," said Sowry. "Culling though, you are killing large amounts”
And that wasn’t easy… for anyone really.
“I don't think there's anyone that's ever lived that loves culling or enjoyed it," said Sowry. "You just did it because it was necessary for the, you know, the sustainability of the whole system.”
This culling was conducted using the best available knowledge in hopes of protecting biodiversity. However, elephant culling was stopped in the mid-90s and the elephant population in Kruger has risen ever since. Which has gotten wildlife managers concerned.
“Wildlife management in a park is simulating those aspects that are missing from the system yet are essential, or we believe, essential, for healthy functioning of that system,” said Sowry.
And what were the elephants missing? Well… predators. Which brings us to a very important point.
“Humans are the only predator of any consequence of the African elephant.”
Humans are native to Africa. Hominid records in South Africa date back 3.67 million years and the hunting of African elephants by humans date back to the paleolithic. We are their natural predator and predator-prey relations are essential for healthy ecosystems. And so, without their natural predator, like ungulates without wolves, the elephant population (without human hunters) has skyrocketed.
“We could prove that we absolutely need to manage elephants," said Sowry. "But then what to do? That's really what we don't know.”
Opinions on exactly what to do are varied. Some advocate to bring back culling, others for sterilization, translocation, trophy hunting, water restriction, or even just allowing the population to adjust on its own, among many others. But it’s worth remembering that this is a problem born of success.
“Yes, elephants no longer occur in places where they used to occur, but in southern Africa and other areas of East Africa, people have done a really good job of looking after elephants and giving them habitat,” said Sowry.
An important fact to remember going forward. Kruger's robust elephant population is often praised as a success story, which it is. The question that Sowry and others are most concerned about is... is this now too much of a good thing? You can learn more about the debate here and read more about Kruger's conservation successes here.
