Imagine there were two men and eight women in a house with a freezer and pantry full of food and drink. Now there is no access to the outside world, so no extra sustenance can be obtained. Due to lack of entertainment breeding will take place, so numbers will multiply, and food will diminish – so what is going to happen? Eventually the folk in the house will die off. This is akin to the 1970/71 draught in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park when they decided to let nature take its course and they had 6000 elephants perish due to lack of food or water. What an agonising death!! I saw a sable manage to get within a couple of metres of a pumped waterhole and collapse first onto bent front legs and then let out a heart rendering below as death slowly came over him. Some of you will say this is nature, but man has restricted these animals so they cannot roam as far and wide as they did in David Livingstone’s time, so man must now look after them (elephants and all other animals) and their habitat.
Now put this scenario to herds of elephant that man has now confined to a National Park – they eventually cause destruction to the trees with either pushing them over to get the foliage and pods at the top of the tree or ring barked them, so they don’t have a chance to re-grow but die off, and the grasslands are denuded to just Kalahari sand – what are these animals now going to eat, never mind the rest of the animal population that is in the same National Park.
During drought years in Wankie elephant would rip up the pipes from the pump to the water hole to try and obtain water. They have even knocked down fences to picnic sites and tried to get water from where there was a tap to supply visitors with water. They have pushed over windmills in search of water. A moat had to be built around all windmills and pumps to try and keep the elephants from destroying them. An article in the Rhodesian Chronicle states on the Dett vlei “Courtney Selous hunted on it and spoke of its thriving plant and animal life. Its name derived from ndetima, meaning a marsh or bog, testifies to this. Investigation has shown parts of it were covered by vast forests. Today much of the vlei, running for more than 15km near the main entrance to Wankie National Park, is a dustbowl. Repeated fires and cattle grazing have taken their toll. Little vegetation grows and most animals keep well clear. Rangers have travelled long distances to investigate what they thought was smoke, only to find it was a dust storm on the vlei.” Overgrazing!! I did a trip through Hwange September 2011 and found there was a lot of destruction in the Mopane woodland, and will be interested to see the results in August 2011 when we do another trip through Hwange, as now there is no culling, just poaching from higher officials!
Dad did try and keep as many pumps and windmills in the Park (even in the wilderness areas) operating so that animals would be dispersed to save the vegetation being destroyed around just a few pans. He also used to get the Parks pilots to fly the Park and if any of the pump attendants had a problem with their pump they could wave at the pilot who would then inform ground staff to go out and fix them. Often Dad flew with the pilot.
The men that did the culling operations did not enjoy this job, but were professional about it, with killing a herd in under a minute and darting the younger animals. This is far cry from what Adolf Hitler did – killing 17 million civilians including 6 million Jews targeted in the Holocaust and between 500 000 and 1 500 000 Roma (Adolf Hitler – Wikipedia), and what a lot of other leaders have done to mankind, just read Peter Godwin latest book “The Fear The Last Days of Mugabe”, the genocide going on in Africa. Are these leaders being made to account for their sins? The rest of the world idly sit back, complain but do nothing! One day they will all meet their maker!! All the meat was dried and sold to the local community, the ivory was the property of the Government and the skins sold and the only thing left was the intestines and entrails. The profits of these sales would then go back into National Parks to maintain the roads, pumps and rest camps.
This exert was taken from Dad’s diary:
MONDAY 1 AUGUST 1977
First cull from Linkwasha – 24 including 2 captured one each for Bristow and Schulz. Barrie flew with Mike while I went down with Len Roberts – just beyond Mandundumela.
Average dried meat per elephant 97 kilo last year – 106 kilos this year.
Average hide – weighed after 5 days in salt 137 kilos.
Wild Life Contractors paid 80c per kilo for dried meat while in Salisbury 95c per kilo – hide fluctuates current $2.15 per kilo, but last year 85c.
Usual profit in a year $4000.00 after all expenses, income tax, depreciation and interest.
Len paid $20 per day while on the job – so much per hour for use of his plane on company business – allowed on trip per week to his ranch on the company. Private land rovers so much per mile on company work – amount per hour and mile not stated.
The timber used for drying the meat on had to what was lying around due to elephant destruction. They would take on an average of 25 elephant a day within a 30 mile radius of their camp site if possible.
The young elephants were taken to holding pens at Umtishibi to settle down before being sold off. Now folk might think this is awful to have one’s family shot and now be homeless, but think of a child who is dumped or given up for adoption! How many of you folk reading this can remember your life as a two or three year old – not many of us remember those years of our lives – we are resilient at that age. A lot of these babies are now being used for tourists to interact with them and get to learn all about them in safari camps. I don’t whole heartedly agree with riding them, as they are still a wild animal and should be entitled to their former life. I always wanted a squirrel as a pet in my youth, but Dad would not allow it, as he said they are wild animals and must stay wild.
This is just my point of view, and may not be everyone’s. I grew up in National Parks, so enjoy seeing the animals in their natural environment, and do feel that hunting and culling is a necessary action to keep population from exploding and destroying themselves and the vegetation.
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