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Published online 7 May 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/453145f
News in Brief
Elephant-hunting season opens in South Africa
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Killing elephants is not acceptable. Boycott all companies with a presence in South Africa and write your congressman to stop any aid to that country. We can save those elephants.
This is not the way to tackle this problem. It will lead to uncontrolled and illegal hunting of elephants. There are many ways to solve the problems arising due to crowding of elephants like migrate them to other parts and balance the natural killer of the elephants. this will may help in maintaining the natural balance of food chain.
The culling of elephants, although still not acceptable in my eyes, can be 'argued' as a feasible method in which to control numbers. But only in a country where such measures can be controlled strictly. The question needs to be asked as to what message does this send to the countries neighbouring South Africa? and could such measures be controlled in the same way? I do not think this is the correct way to go about things and will eventually encourage the scourge that is poaching.
Culling is never a solution. Once hunting is started there will be no way to control. Apart from threatening populations, ivory poaching is terribly cruel to individuals. After the shooting, some are lucky enough to be dead before getting their paws and horns removed.
The question is: Are there really other solutions to save the vegetation in the parks? Which "natural killers" of elephants mean R. Mahida? It is very difficult (and expensive) to find a novel home for an elephant herd and bring them all to this novel place. Of course, culling should be the very last resort. Two years ago, I saw a terrible destroyed part of the Hlane Park in Swasiland, without higher vegetation. It was told me that the elephants of this park were maintained in numbers to high only because of protests in America. The result: Nearly all trees above five metres are dead now.