Why inaction on elephant overpopulation may cause greater animal suffering

In Don Pinnock’s analysis article he argues that the South African government is prioritising culling and killing elephants, and that that idea is not normal for today’s society, goes against specific elephant management plans, and suggests it is not an action that aligns with an animal welfare and rights perspective.

I’ve written a number of pieces around elephants that have been published for the Daily Maverick, and one specifically on the Madikwe elephant situation. In that article, I outlined the options that Madikwe currently faces when it comes to elephant management. When you rationalise those decisions into a matrix against logistical, cost and logical implementation envelopes, you only have two viable outcome options for elephant management in Madikwe.

The first is the outcome that Mr Pinnock and his analysis suggests, which is do nothing in Madikwe. Inaction in itself is an action. Inaction comes as a result of belaboured discussions about past missed opportunities, fingerpointing at decadal old actions and decisions, and continuous “stuck in the mud” angst tied to media backlash when bold decisive decisions are necessary for future ecosystem and animal health.

I find it strange that inaction is championed by animal welfare/rights advocates, given the antithetical position that inaction is to their perspective. If you look at the animal rights ethic, including care ethics, consequentialism, etc., by undertaking inaction (i.e., do nothing to the system and let mother nature control the outcomes) you put animals (elephants in this case) into positions of starvation and into a position of suffering. We saw this play out in the last drought that hit Madikwe, in which the NSPCA called out the starvation situation as unacceptable. This exact situation will occur again if inaction continues.

Only current option

The only current option available to Madikwe elephants from a management perspective is culling. This is where Mr Pinnock has decided that the normalisation of killing elephants i.e., the idea of culling, is not appropriate. We have already seen what occurs under the inaction option, which is Mother Nature will take care of the problem.

The outcome of inaction will result in maybe a couple of dozen or maybe a couple of hundred elephants dying. As a reminder to everyone, no animal lives forever. Every animal will eventually die. And in a situation like Madikwe, where resources will be limited some time in the future, and you have a large population of resource-dependent elephants, the result will be a population crash.

This is a mass die-off event. You could reword it as a mass cull event. There is only one specific difference between a Mother Nature-induced mass die-off and human-induced mass cull: the level of associated animal suffering. You don’t need to be an ethicist to understand that the mass die-off event would be the worst case scenario from an animal rights perspective.

I think the concern that everybody has around culling is that once it is enacted it would become a regular tool for elephant management. I don’t believe this is the case, nor would it be something at the current needed scale, that I would advocate for. Rather it is a tool that is needed in extreme cases where past management decisions have been ignored or nullified.

When wildlife populations reach proportions that are of detriment to themselves, other wildlife, and the overall biodiversity of the system, and all other options have been exhausted (which is the case here in Madikwe and unfolding in other places), culling is that management tool that gets initiated. That’s exactly why it has been set up in elephant management plans as a last resort.

Only final option

As Mr Pinnock points out, the North West Tourism and Parks Board’s own elephant management plan notes culling as a last resort. Given the fact that all other actions have been explored and all other actions have logistically, and from a cost perspective, been nullified and impossible to implement, then, yes, culling is the only final option – i.e. the last resort. Translocation is not possible, nobody wants elephants. Large-scale range manipulation by expanding the boundaries of Madikwe is a pipe dream, and contraception is not a feasible option for acute population control on an elephant population the size of Madikwe’s.

I honestly believe that though unpopular in today’s society, a reduction in elephant numbers in Madikwe would be a shining example for the next two decades of elephant management in SA in which the biodiversity writ large is prioritised. It would reset a system that would then implement elephant management at early stages in such a way as to balance biodiversity, people, communities, as well as the next generation’s ability to see elephants in semi-wild conditions.

Culling would be an extremely bold but necessary immediate actionable management exercise that would return elephants to appropriate population levels, at which time the other management tools would then be able to be effectively implemented.

This issue isn’t just occurring in Madikwe – as Mr Pinnock points out, Ezemvelo is dealing with an overpopulation of elephants as well, and there are several other reserves that are inching closer and closer to the same situation that Madikwe faces right now.

Budget crises

The Madikwe crisis has been in the news headlines for almost two years now. The financial saviours that are needed for the translocation of elephants, as well as solving the budget crises of these provincial government agencies (which are absolutely real) have not emerged. No philanthropic sources or ecotourism operations, nor individuals nor any animal welfare groups, have stepped up with the necessary financial resources to implement the options that are being suggested instead of culling.

Like Mr Pinnock, I am also worried about normalising the lethal killing of elephants in SA. However, I’m also a realist. I have a quote that is set in my reminders daily that states “Ambition without action is a fantasy”. Thinking that the elephant issue in Madikwe will rectify itself without culling, is a fantasy.

I believe that with continued inaction we should all be more concerned with the normalising of the same number of elephants starving to death because of a lack of action of last resort. DM