AR-News: (S.Africa) Humans cause problems for elephants at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park

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<A HREF="http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=283&fArticleId=397850">http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=283&fArticleId=397850</A>
 
SOUTH AFRICA    
    
Visitors 'provoke park's jumbos'    
April 9, 2004

By Tania Broughton

About 90% of incidents involving tourists and elephants at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi 
Park are the result of provocation by tourists.

"They have been seen to hoot at elephants, get too close or push past them," 
said Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal spokesman Jeff Gaisford yesterday.

He was reacting to a report this week detailing how a South Coast magistrate 
and her two children were charged by a one-tusked elephant as they were 
driving through the reserve towards Hilltop Camp.

The animal kicked the car's headlight and slapped the bonnet with its trunk.

Asheena Bacharam admitted she had attempted to drive past the grazing animal 
but said she had not been warned or given any information at the gate about 
how to react towards elephants.

She was also told that this was the third such incident in a week involving 
the same elephant. The Mercury also learned that the same elephant had charged 
a safari vehicle the day before Bacharam's incident.

But Gaisford denied the animal was a "problem elephant".

"It hangs around the main tourist areas so it does interact with tourists a 
lot more than most.

"But it is not a troublemaker. We have a witness statement which indicates 
Mrs Bacharam tried to push past the elephant. It was obviously startled . . . 
she intruded far too close to the top.DisplayAds('Pos7',2,283);  
    

animal and this would have been interpreted as an attack on it.

Warning

"Visitors should be reminded that it is their responsibility to avoid 
provoking big game, such as getting too close to them and intruding on their personal 
space."

Gaisford said there were warning signs at the gate and information pamphlets 
were available in the office. 

These would now be routinely handed out with receipts "because people 
obviously don't pay attention".

Last week wilderness trails operator Fortune Mkhize was trampled to death by 
a bull elephant at the reserve while taking a party on a trail.

Gaisford said while the elephant had not been identified, staff had now 
received photographs from those who witnessed the incident.

"We need to locate the elephant and find out if it was injured and what 
provoked the attack. Then a decision will be taken on what to do next."

"It is well known that once an elephant kills a human being, it will kill 
again, so we have to be very cautious about this."  


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