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ENVIRONMENT: African Jumbos Find New Home Overseas
By James Hall
MBABANE, Sep 5 (IPS) - The presence of two Russian-made Aleutian Planes, the
largest aircraft to ever fly into or out of Swaziland, attracted the
attention of residents living near the small country's one international
airport, at Matsapha in the centre of the country.
What had brought the planes was a controversial "translocation" programme
to ship eleven so-called "baby" elephants away from certain death in their
native habitats to a guarantee that they would live out the rest of their
lives in an environment foreign to them.
Nations from South Africa to Botswana observed closely the movement of
the elephants to see if a way may be available for them to reduce their own
expanding herds without bloodshed.
"We have an overpopulation of elephants. They breed like all other living
things," Ted Reilly, executive director of Big Game Parks of Swaziland, said
in an interview with IPS.
"Then the drought hit, and for three years vegetation has been reduced.
Other animal species were threatened. In their hunger, the elephants were
ravishing valuable indigenous old-stock trees. There was no alternative to
culling if this sale did not go through," said Reilly.
King Mswati, who by law is the custodian of all wild game in his kingdom,
approved the operation. He did so as an alternative loomed: a bullet in each
young elephant's head as part of a culling operation.
In the United States, a leading animal rights group, People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), opposed the translocation, and
threatened to sponsor a tourism boycott to halt the sale of six elephants to
San Diego Wild Animal Park in California, and five to Lowry Park Zoo in
Tampa, Florida.
"PETA is adamant against stealing animals from their natural homes and
cramming them in zoo cages, but especially when it comes to the San Diego
Zoo and the Lowry Park Zoo, which are the zoos that want to cage Swaziland's
young elephants," said Jane Garrison of PETA.
Swaziland's parks, which reintroduced elephants to the country starting
in 1985, several years after the native herds had been killed off by man,
bristled at the suggestion that they were acting "unethically" or immorally
toward their animal charges.
"We are saving the elephants' lives. The alternative is death.
Overpopulation of elephants is a huge problem in Southern Africa," said
Reilly.
About 11,000 elephants currently roam South Africa on game parkland that
can only accommodate 7,000.
"That means 4,000 elephants will have to be destroyed, or the parks'
ecosystems will be destroyed," said a conservation expert.
"The culling operation will be massive, and it will certainly raise
criticisms," he said.
Botswana also has an overpopulation dilemma with its herds. In
Mozambique, the rehabilitation of the impoverished nation's agriculture
sector cannot tolerate marauding elephants that devour the crops of
smallholder farmers and larger agribusinesses.
PETA was unmoved, and sought to stop the sale of Swazi elephants to the
United States by going to federal court and seeking an injunction against
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which approved the translocation. The
judge turned down the request, clearing the way for the animal's departure
from Swaziland.
PETA claimed to have found a home for the Swazi elephants in South
Africa. But South African law prohibits the importation of "orphan"
elephants, who are not a part of an extended family. The Swazi elephants
were all "orphans," and were originally imported from South Africa to reduce
the problems they presented there. Male orphans, who are not part of an
elephant family where a hierarchy of older male relatives ensures herd
discipline, are notoriously wild and destructive.
Swaziland's animal conservationists complain about PETA's aggressive
tactics, particularly the threat of a tourism boycott that would devastate
the country's economy. Government has targeted tourism as a means for
sustainable development that would provide jobs by allowing Swazis to
showcase the kingdom's culture, scenic beauty and its African animal
menagerie.
"They rushed to the press with threats of a tourist boycott without even
speaking to us, and their tone is that we are ignorant incompetents who are
insensitive to animal welfare and incapable of handling our own affairs,"
says Themba Khumalo, a game ranger.
The actual movement of the elephants was carried out with military-style
precision, with tight security. A team of animal "translocators" from South
Africa got to work darting selected elephants at Mkhaya Game Reserve in
eastern Swaziland, using the synthetic morphine M99. Though some of the
elephants were 12 years old, they were considered children by the standards
of an animal that lives into his or her sixties.
The tranquilizer Azaparone was used to sedate each elephant, which
travelled in his or her own steel mesh crate.
Accompanied by a police escort, a convoy of flatbed trucks carrying
crates discretely draped in black tarp halted at an unlit portion of airport
runway, where truck headlamps illuminated the lengthy process of securing
the travellers in the plane cargo holds.
A sense of sadness pervaded the operation. None of the game rangers or
park managers was happy moving the elephants into captivity.
Two South African veterinarians, one per plane, accompanied the cargo,
which at 2.5 tonnes per animal weighed in at 27.5 tones of elephant.
At a transport cost of 250,000 U.S. dollars per animal, the elephants
took the first direct flight from Swaziland to the United States.
"There was a lot of propaganda surrounding this sale. But it comes down
to the parks' inability to keep the elephants. There's no room and no food,"
Reilly said.
Some of the R750,000 (105,634 U.S. dollars) the parks made from the
elephant sale is earmarked for a R2.98 million (419,719 U.S. dollars)
electrified fence to extend the Swazi elephant herd's roaming
area. (END/2003)
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