Increasing populations a threat
According to the "guestimates" up until 1905, there were still no elephants recorded in the KNP.
MBOMBELA – According to a recent census, there are over 20 000 elephants in the Kruger National Park (KNP).
This is according to the well-known elephant expert and author, Dr Ian Whyte.
He did an intriguing presentation on the evidence and history of this population in the KNP in a Wessa Lowveld meeting at Penryn College’s auditorium on Tuesday.
Whyte said the reason why there are more elephants than expected in the park is rather obscure. His presentation was based on data collected from bushmen hunts, trees and records of the early hunters.
“Africans and bushmen were capable of killing elephants by using poisonous spears. Francois de Curper, the first European to enter KNP in 1725, was trading in gold, copper and ivory.
“Author Henry Anderson Bryden, a European settler, gave a detailed report of the decline of the elephant population of southern Africa. He gave a specific account of how many hunters and in which areas they operated, however, KNP received no mention at all,” said Whyte.
“Elephants have occurred at rather low densities in the KNP for many hundred years. They were finally almost shot to extinction in the area between 1880 and 1896,” he said.
According to the “guestimates” up until 1905, there were still no elephants recorded in the KNP. Whyte said in 1964 there was a population growth of 2 374 and three years later it had grown to 6 586. When culling was still allowed in the Kruger, before it was stopped in 1994, the practice saw 14 562 elephants culled, while 2 175 of them were translocated.
The ever-increasing populations in nature reserves are threatening biodiversity, but how to address the issue remains a dilemma.
“The KNP is currently carrying more elephants than in the past few hundred years or more. The current high biodiversity is probably a result of low densities for a long time. Can this be sustained?” Whyte asked.
