/ 14 February 2000

ORPHANED ELEPHANTS HAVE KILLED 36 RHINO

AGGRESSIVE young orphaned elephants have killed 36 rhinoceroses, including rare black ones, in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park in eastern South Africa. The elephants were orphaned when their parents were culled in South Africa’s Kruger National Park in the early 1990s in a bid to control the elephant population there. According to conservationists, the young elephants have been on a collision course with rhinoceroses in Hluhluwe-Umofolozi. As the elephants have matured, they have become more aggressive and the rhino attacks have increased in the past two years. In the last five months of 1999, 13 rhinos were killed, including two black rhino.