Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Elephant Askaris Laying Branches across Road
There is a hunting concession nearby. Rumors are that hunting will be closed in Botswana
except for elephants and on private game ranches if more than 20 miles from a national
reserve. [For 2011, 400 licenses were granted. A study done on the contribution of elephants
to Botswana's national income showed that the combination of tourism, culling and hunting had
the greatest contribution at 155 million pula ($19.6) according to Barnes in 1990 terms.]
Because of the their poor eye sight, elephants can be approached very close, as long as one
is not heard or they don't pick up ones scent, which to them is probably like a barrel of rotten
fish considering their very good sense of smell. They can detect ripening Marula fruit on trees
from miles away and get drunk on the fruit, either from fermentation in the sun or their bellies.
During the 1960s, there was a spate of elephant violence against cars in the Kruger Park. Many
believed it was related to Marula drunkenness, simulated by the movie Beautiful People and
The God's Must Be Crazy. Incidentally, the producer's family paid over some 2.7 million
dollars for a breeding buffalo. A bull on auction recently fetched R18 million and every
indication is that prices for wide horned buffalo will continue to increase. The elephant attacks
were more likely related to overpopulation and culling, particularly when the latter did not
involve destroying the entire herd. Of note, with the Kruger Park population now twice of the
recommended number, elephant attacks on cars have again increased.
Southern Africa has some 160,000 elephants in Botswana (PH Jeff Rann estimates
200,000), 120,000 in Zimbabwe as of 2008 and 20,000 in South Africa, mostly in the Greater
Kruger Park area, and they are causing severe habitat destruction. As a result, other herbivore
populations are plunging in some areas, with some species down by 70% to 90% in Botswana.
In the Olifant's Game Reserve area of Greater Kruger Park, looking at plots of animal
populations, there is an inverse relationship between elephant numbers and zebra or
wildebeest numbers. From once having a population of maybe a million wildebeest, some
believe wildebeest will become locally extinct in Botswana.
Part of the problem is that many do not realize that 45% of elephant's food intake is grazing
grass and directly competing with such other grazers.
Another result of poor eyesight is that elephants are very prone to charge at night because
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