Zimbabwe recently confirmed its intention to cull 200 elephants to feed communities facing acute hunger following the worst drought the country has seen in four decades.

This followed in the wake of an announcement by the Namibian government that it planned to cull 723 wild animals, including 83 elephants.

In both countries, the meat will be distributed to people left food insecure by the severe El Niño-induced drought in southern Africa.

More than 200 000 elephants were estimated to live in a conservation area spread over five southern African countries, namely Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Angola and Namibia, making the region home to one of the largest elephant populations in the world.

According to Reuters, the culling also formed part of Zimbabwe’s efforts to decongest its parks.

Sean Hensman, a researcher at Adventures with Elephants in South Africa, told Farmer’s Weekly that although culling often was an emotive issue, sustainable use of wildlife was of the essence to ensure the conservation of game species.

Hensman added that elephants were running out of space on the African continent.

According to him, it was projected that Africa’s population would reach 2.5 billion people by 2050, compared with the current population of 1.4 billion people.

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