ELEPHANTS

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

The Smithsonian Institution
and Malaysian National Parks and
Wildlife Protection Department o n
October 5 began an attempt to track rogue
elephants by satellite. The idea is to head
the rogues––believed to be just a few individuals
among a wild herd of about
2,000––away from potentially lethal conflicts
with farmers and villagers. The
Smithsonian has used the same technology
to track mountain goats in India and Tibet,
and turtles in the Philippines. The transmitter/collar
each elephant must be made
to wear costs $6,000, project coordinator
Michael Stuwe said, and the annual cost
of tracking could be as high as $10,000
per elephant.

The British group Care for the
Wild on October 20 urged the governments
of South Africa and Zimbabwe to
stop culling elephants, presenting data
from a panel of experts assembled at the
University of Pretoria to indicate that a
larger elephant herd would encourage both
eco-tourism and the restoration of natural
cycles to wildlife habitat. “Culling is an
unscientific practice,” charged ecologist
Chris Styles, “and it ought to be abolished
as a management tool.” South African
president Nelson Mandela earlier this year
cut the national culling quota to 300, from
600 under his predecessor.