Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Attacks by elephants, the largest of the “large animals,” produce approximately 500
fatalities a year in Africa and southern Asia. The number of attacks has increased so much
in recent years that a new statistical category, known as Human-Elephant Conflict, or
H.E.C, has been created. Most attacks are considered provoked, although the provocation
required to initiate an attack has diminished greatly.
InAssaminnortheastIndia,elephantshavekilled605peopleintwelveyears,239since
2001. In the Indian state of Jharkhand near Bangladesh, 300 people were killed by ele-
phants between 2000 and 2004. During this period 265 elephants died, most killed by vil-
lagers using a variety of poisons.
Other bizarre elephant behavior also has been occurring. Since the early 1990s, young
male elephants in Pilanesberg National Park and the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve,
both in South Africa, and in other game preserves have been raping and killing rhinocer-
oses. Officials in Pilanesberg shot three young male elephants that were responsible for
killing sixty-three rhinos, as well as attacking people in safari vehicles. In Addo Elephant
National Park, also in South Africa, up to 90 percent of male elephant deaths are now at-
tributable to other male elephants, compared with a rate of 6 percent in stable elephant
communities.
In normal elephant societies, young elephants are raised within an extended network of
doting female caregivers that includes the mother, grandmothers, aunts, and friends. These
relations are maintained over a life span that may be as long as seventy years. However,
faced with diminishing park land to accommodate these animals and increasing human
populations that vigorously object to the damage to farms and crops elephants produce,
park managers have “culled” herds by shooting animals en masse. In some areas, ivory-
seeking poachers are known to prefer grenades over guns to kill animals.
As a result, the normal network of caregivers in a herd has been destroyed, and young
elephants grow to maturity without the support they normally have. Young elephants re-
located to “societies” without parental figures are traumatized and grow to be aggressive
creatures. The resulting behavioral disorders have been compared by investigators to post-
traumaticstressdisorderinhumans.Amoredetaileddiscussionofthisproblemisavailable
A ranger in South Africa's Kruger National Park has set forth a list of ten rules to pre-
vent or avoid elephant attacks:
1. The vehicle engine should never be turned off when elephants are spotted. If the ele-
phantbecomesaggressive,itcancoveralotofgroundsurprisinglyquickly,whichmay
not leave time to start the vehicle.
2. Elephants should be given space. If they are so close that accelerating very quickly
does not allow escape, they are too close. At least 60 to 70 feet is needed.
3. Bulls in musth, an annual period of heightened aggressiveness and sexual activity in
male elephants, during which violent frenzies occur, should be identified and given
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