Elephant calves seized from the wild in Zimbabwe, say animal protection groups
Source: International Herald Tribune
Date: 14 November 2006
Author: Anon
HARARE, Zimbabwe: At least 15 young elephants were captured in a Zimbabwe national park and were to be trained take tourists on rides by private safari operators, according to animal protection activists who say the transfer was cruel and exploitative.
Five of the calves were taken from the Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe to pens near the resort town of Victoria Falls, the independent Zimbabwe National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said last week.
John Chikomo, an inspector for the society investigating the capture at the scene, said the animals were darted from the air and separated from family groups in the wild, causing severe trauma to both the adult elephants and the young.
Cow elephants are known for fiercely protecting their young. Only young elephants can be tamed enough for tourism projects including elephant riding adventure safaris. Under international conservation practice, orphaned elephants are normally used.
No immediate comment was available from the state national parks headquarters in Harare.
Chikomo said he inspected permits for the capture issued at the headquarters, making it legal.
But Hwange rangers acknowledged it was a breach of official conservation policy to break up family groups and said they were ordered not to intervene by ranking state officials.
Ian Du Preez, head of elephant operations of Shearwater Adventures, one of Zimbabwe's best known adventure tourism safari companies, participated in the capture.
"I am not in a position to discuss it," he said by telephone from Victoria Falls.
The head of Shearwater, Allan Roberts, was not immediately available for comment.
On its Web site, Shearwater promotes African adventure holidays said to be "environmentally friendly and ecologically sound."
The International Fund for Animal Welfare said the captured juvenile elephants, aged between seven and 10 years old, were "condemned to lives of captive suffering as safari entertainment for tourists."
"It is disgraceful and a shame that Zimbabwe is prepared to sanction the abuses inherent in capturing wild elephants and subjecting them to lives in captivity. The fact that the animals are being taken from herds in Hwange, which is one of the worlds most renowned game reserves, beggars belief," said IFAW Southern Africa Director, Jason Bell-Leask.
He said no laws were in force to govern methods of training elephants. He said tour companies claimed they were saving young elephants from sure death during culling to reduce overpopulation of elephants destroying their habitat.
"IFAW disagrees — they are often taking young elephants from the wild to be subjected to confinement and training that is wrong, cruel and exploitative. The training pays no attention to the physical, behavioral, psychological and social needs of these highly intelligent creatures," said Bell-Leask.
Zimbabwe has not culled its prolific elephant herds for several years.
Bell-Leask said his organization urged "all tourists to appreciate watching elephants in the wild, where they belong, and avoid cruel activities."
Zimbabwe's tourist industry is struggling to make up for revenue losses after six years of political and economic turmoil in the troubled southern African nation suffering its worst economic crisis — with acute shortages of hard currency, food, gasoline and essentials imports — since independence in 1980.
In a report last month, the independent Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said the economic conditions were affecting wildlife management. The task force said Zimbabwe's nature reserves, with revenues hit by a sharp decline in foreign tourism, were staffed by under-equipped and poorly trained and paid rangers. The report revived criticism that some state wildlife authority rangers were profiteering on meat and illegal ivory.