The document describes two elephant culling operations witnessed by conservationist Clive Walker in Zimbabwe and South Africa in the 1980s. In Zimbabwe, Walker accompanied sharpshooters who tracked and rapidly shot 17 elephants on foot within 35 seconds. In South Africa, elephants were darted from a helicopter with a paralytic drug and then shot by ground crews. Culling operations aimed to control elephant populations but stirred debate between those who saw it as necessary population management and those who condemned it as inhumane.

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above the elephants. I could smell
them. The pilot announced that we
were going in and the ranger checked
his immobilising gun.
Five minutes later a big cow and sub-
adult had been darted, a minute later
another two were immobilised. Five
more went down, but the matriarch was
still on her feet. One cow fell on top of
her baby as we circled left and right,
holding the herd together. Finally, the
matriarch was darted and went down.
Two calves stood pressed against their
fallen mothers.
The vehicles moved in and within
10 minutes all had been shot, bar the
calves, which were given tranquillisers
and later sold. From the first dart to
final shot, the operation took just
35 minutes.
*The use of scoline was suspended in 1990
after it was discovered to be inhumane.
Thereafter elephants were killed by a brain
shot fired directly from the air.
Conservationist and wildlife artist Clive
Walker founded the Endangered Wildlife
Trust and is a co-founder of the Rhino &
Elephant Foundation.
Hwange National Park
Zimbabwe, 1982
I needed a first-hand account of how
elephant populations were managed
for a research project, and was granted
permission to accompany a team of park
staff members and a pilot on a culling
operation in what was then Wankie
National Park (now Hwange).
The pilot, flying a SuperCub aeroplane
and acting as a spotter, radioed that a
herd of 17 elephants was about two
kilometres ahead of us and moving
away. We set off at a run and managed
to get ahead of them. Soon the lead
elephant came into view, moving
towards us at a fair pace. The scene
felt unreal as the herd had no idea of
our presence. The three sharpshooters
took up their positions. I stuck close
behind the main gun as he ran forward.
The matriarch came steadily towards
us, only to be felled in seconds. Other
elephants started to mill around, then
also fell under the fusillade.
All 13 adult elephants were down
within 35 seconds and three small
females were captured to be sold later.
The fourth youngster, a male, was also
shot as the buyers only wanted females.
I remember no trumpeting or screaming,
except from the young elephants which
were chased, then restrained.
Then everyone sat down to wait for
the tractor bringing the team who would
set up a bush abattoir. Our part was over.
From the take-off of the SuperCub to the
firing of the last shot, the operation took
less than three hours.
Kruger National Park
South Africa, 1980
The Zimbabwe experience was quite
different to a culling operation that I
had witnessed in the Kruger two years
previously. There elephants were
darted from a helicopter with scoline*,
a compound that causes paralysis,
allowing ground crews to move in.
I was in the Kruger’s Bell JetRanger
helicopter when we picked up an
elephant herd just after 15h00. Within
10 minutes, the herd had been broken
up into small groups with the bulls
running ahead. Occasionally a big
elephant would turn and face the
helicopter. All the pilot’s skills and years
of flying in culling operations came into
play. Apart from the occasional word on
the radio to the ranger sitting behind
him, he concentrated on manoeuvring
the group toward a firebreak where the
ground crew was waiting. The elephants
were clearly very conscious of the sound
of the chopper – two slipped in the
mud and agitated cows occasionally
placed their trunks across the backs of
calves. Emptying their bowels, they
fled towards a dry river bed where they
paused for a moment. We were very
close to the firebreak and nine metres
the reality
CULLING
In Kruger National Park, culling
operations were conducted from the air.

Culling stirs huge debate, from animal
rights campaigners who condemn it to
researchers who cannot agree on its
scientific merits.
D. & S. Balfour/www.darylbalfour.com (3)
Does it work?
Culling not only provokes a strong emotional response, but also stirs debate
within scientific circles. Despite diverging views, however, there does seem to be
consensus that it should be considered only as a last resort.
No say Rudi van Aarde & Tim Jackson
Culling seems to be founded in the quest
to control, an activity that conservation
managers inherited from ‘problem animal
control’ departments. These were established
by colonial governments to deal with nuisance
animals and crop-raiders and later developed
into a tool of wildlife management.
Culling aims to reduce numbers and,
consequently, the ecological impact that
target species have on an area. However,
culling may disrupt the ranging behaviour
of elephants in an unpredictable manner. In
Kruger National Park, for example, elephant
numbers decreased as predicted within
specified management blocks immediately
after culling. Surprisingly, though, the
following year elephant numbers had
increased to above pre-culling levels. How
was this possible? The answer lies in the
movement of elephants from areas that were
not part of the culling programme into the
culling block. In other words, elephants in
the Kruger simply seem to have redistributed
themselves and local impacts which should
have been reduced, became worse.
Other elephants have also responded to
a sudden and drastic reduction in numbers.
The last cull in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National
Park took place in 1995. Just six years
later, the elephant population there had
doubled, whereas in that same period other
Zimbabwean populations had grown by just
28 per cent. Similarly, in the Kruger, we believe
year-to-year growth rates during periods of
culling to be some of the highest on record.
Rapid recoveries in elephant numbers also
followed the cessation of culling in several
other parks. Moreover, culling elephants
to reduce impact ignores the role of other
herbivores as agents of ecosystem change.
When considering the response of
elephants and other species to culling it
follows that this method seldom achieves the
goal of reducing impact. For conservation to
succeed we must consider the full suite of
management tools.
Rudi van Aarde and Tim Jackson are
conducting research into elephant con­
servation at the Conservation and Ecology
Research Unit at the University of Pretoria.
Yes says Ian Whyte
Kruger National
Park needs to
be managed
for the benefit
of all species,
in other words
biodiversity
needs to be
maintained. Research conducted in Kruger
and Tsavo national parks in 1963 concluded
that a maximum density of about one
elephant per square mile should achieve this.
In the Kruger, a slightly more conservative
level (7 000 elephants in 8 000 square miles)
was adopted.
Between 1967 and 1995, this number
was maintained through a combination of
culling and translocation, a policy that was
successful in that no other species were lost
from the system during this time (although
there were indications that even at this level
tall trees were disappearing from some
landscapes).
It is true that, one year after a cull, there
were more elephants in the zone where
the culling was conducted. This is not an
increase in population, but reflects elephant
movements from one zone of the park
to another. These are movements across
administrative boundaries (SANParks has
divided the park into four management
zones) and have nothing to do with elephant
home ranges. In fact, the stated intention
of the policy to conduct culls was to induce
local fluctuations in numbers. In this, the
policy was very successful.
There is no data to support the suggestion
that elephants increase their birth rates
in response to culling. In fact, for the five
years following the moratorium on culling,
growth rates were almost the lowest on
record. Since 2000, however, the Kruger’s
elephant population has been increasing at
close to the maximum possible rate of seven
per cent per year, as has the population of
Addo Elephant Park, where there has been
no culling.
Scientist Ian Whyte has been responsible for
elephant research in Kruger National Park
since 1986.
From the 1960s to the mid-1990s, culling – which actually means ‘to remove’ –
was the principal tool of wildlife managers across most of southern Africa.
Vegetation needed to be maintained and culling was believed to be the only
solution to prevent some species from compromising others. Methods varied from
country to country – in Zimbabwe highly skilled sharpshooters tracked elephants on
foot; in South Africa, culling teams relied more on helicopters. But, as conservationist
Clive Walker remembers, neither way made this unpleasant task any easier.