AR-News: (China) S.African national park "overcrowded" with elephants: expert

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

China View www.chinaview.cn 2004-05-08 17:23:40

    JOHANNESBURG, May 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Overgrowth of elephant population in 
South Africa's Kruger National Park (KNP) has posed threats to the safety of 
bio-diversity and human beings in the area, an expert has warned. 
    The park is now struggling to cope with more than 11,500 elephants since 
there will be not enough vegetation to feed the jumbos, the park's former 
conservation head Willem Gertenbach said,suggesting the population should be 
controlled through regular culling. 
    "The park's bio-diversity will suffer irreparable damage if the numbers 
are not slashed soon," he was quoted as saying by Saturday's newspaper The 
Citizen. 
    At least four persons have been trampled to death by elephants and more 
than three were injured in South Africa in the past six months. The death of 
ecologist Kay Hiscocks on Tuesday near the KNP shocked the country. 
    "The jumbos might have been attacking people because of behavioral 
changes brought about by their frustration and stress at the overcrowding," said 
Gertenbach, who retired at the end of 2002. 
    He said environmental guidelines allowed no more than 8,000 elephants in 
the national park, and regular culling was carried out to control numbers 
before the country's environmental affairs ministry placed a moratorium on culling 
in 1994. 



full story:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-05/08/content_1457270.htm 



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rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of 
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