Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has renewed its appeal to local, national and international reserves to provide space for the translocation of overabundant elephants from its protected areas.

This comes amid the growing crisis of over 1 000 surplus elephants at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HiP), Tembe Elephant Park, Ithala Game Reserve and Mkhuze Game Reserve.

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These parks all have more elephants than their estimated carrying capacities, despite long-term contraception and attempts at protected area expansion.

Vuyiswa Radebe, head of biodiversity conservation pperations at Ezemvelo, says this appeal has become more urgent in light of recent media articles suggesting the conservation authority is planning to address the elephant overpopulation through culling.

“It is precisely to prevent this kind of suffering that Ezemvelo is compelled to act, given its mandate to conserve all elements of the rich biodiversity in the reserves entrusted to its care.

“For this reason, Ezemvelo again calls on all NGOs and other conservation role-players to come forward with urgent, viable and ethical solutions for elephant range expansion and translocation to delay the need for culling in the near future,” she said.

Read the full story in the upcoming ZO Weekender.

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