Elephant Sale

1995/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Ekologia

Although the sales season has not arrived, those responsible for Zimbabwe's Hwange Natural Park have offered elephants at affordable prices. They did not want to talk about the price, but stressed that the sale is vital. In this Zimbabwe Natural Park, the elephant population has increased by 5% in the last five years, reaching 30,000 elephants today. According to park managers, the situation is already unsustainable. The drought has left all of Africa without resources and, of course, Hwange has been no exception. They believe that the abusive accumulation of elephants will cause the death of the other animals that inhabit the Park and have been able to confirm that there are already fewer rhinoceroses and antelopes.

Controlled hunting has been mentioned as a solution. This option, however, has never worked in Africa, because the illegal trafficking of elephants has great benefits and before temptation it is too easy to yield. In history there are many regrettable passages about it.

The solution is to remove 5,000 elephants from Hwange Park and take them to safe places. But no one believes it will be easy task. The severe drought of recent years has overcome the barriers of Hwange Park and in neighboring countries they also know what hunger and thirst has killed animals. In general, it is a premise to recognize that in Africa there is no park that occupies elephants. They say the only way is to put it on sale. Many can benefit from this offer: Western countries, zoos, etc. According to park managers, the future of elephants has been discussed on numerous occasions before making this decision. If they continue in the park, the elephants will end up hungry or the rest will kill other animals in the park.