Each year Sasol SciFest focuses on an endangered animal and its ecological footprint or spoor. This year the spotlight falls on the African elephant, SciFest’s official Spoor of the Year.
It has become the powerful symbol of a continent, a true flagship species that seems to encapsulate the energy of Africa’s natural landscape and its raw, unbridled beauty.
The African elephant, Loxodonta africana, is divided into two sub-species — the savannah or bush elephant, Loxodonta africana africana, and the forest elephant, Loxodonta africana cyclotis.
Savannah elephants are larger than their forest cousins and their tusks curve outwards. The body length of an average male savannah elephant can extend to 7,5m and the shoulder height to 3,3m. Adult males weigh an average of six tons.
Elephants are a vitally important, keystone species, playing a crucial role in the ecosystems in which they live. There are a multitude of plant species, for example, which depend on passing through an elephant’s digestive system for germination to take place.
Their browsing also affects their habitat’s structure and can prevent areas of encroachment, helping to maintain a more diverse range of flora and fauna in their ranges.
Sadly, the African elephant’s relationship with man has been an uneasy one. In the Eighties some scientists were predicting that the species would be extinct within 20 years as an average of 70 animals were being killed a day by poachers in Tanzania.
In 1977, the African elephant was added to Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). This appendix allows international trade only when import and export permits are issued.
However, by the late 1980s it became apparent that these restrictions had not aided the plight of the species and in 1989 large shipments of ivory were seized on the way to Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea from Kenya and Tanzania. In October 1989 the African elephant was moved to Appendix I of Cites, which bans the international trade in ivory and other elephant products among Cites member nations.
The restrictions seemed to work and by 1995 the number of elephants killed in Kenya, for example, had dropped to 35.
Although the Cites ban was successful in that it significantly reduced the market for poachers, the elephant population figures in Western and Central Africa continued to decline.
Southern Africa was not so severely affected and numbers increased significantly. Countries such as Botswana and Zambia have seen their elephant populations more than double since the start of the 1990s. This, in itself, has posed a huge problem.
The fencing of national parks and protected areas has severely depleted elephant ranges in Southern Africa with the result that there are now huge overpopulation problems and the widespread destruction of equally huge tracts of vegetation.
One of the leaders in the study of elephant metadynamics is the University of Pretoria’s conservation ecology research unit (Ceru). Headed by Professor Rudi van Aarde of the university’s department of zoology and entomology, Ceru is focusing on the restoration of elephant metadynamics and metapopulations through the development of megaparks, including transfrontier conservation areas.
The theory — Megaparks for Metapopulations — is that the numbers of elephants will reduce more naturally if herds with naturally high and low reproduction rates merge and water holes are dried up.
Van Aarde’s research has closely monitored the demographics of elephants in Southern Africa and is committed to facilitating the development of megaparks across the sub continent which follow the distributional range of the elephants in the region.
The Peace Parks Foundation and the University of Pretoria have been involved in initiatives that have led to the establishment of transfrontier conservation areas (TCAs) such as the Limpopo National Park which links South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Ceru is studying elephant populations in Etosha National Park in Namibia, Kafue National Park in Zambia and collaborates with scientists working on similar projects in Chobe National Park in Botswana and the Kunene district of northern Namibia.
Another area of Ceru’s research is working towards the restoration of the Maputaland elephant population. Fragments of this population can be found in the Maputo Elephant Reserve, Tembe Elephant Park and Futi Corridor. Historically, this population used to roam as far south as the White Umfolozi river.
Professor Rudi van Aarde will be part of a panel of experts participating in a debate on elephant management at Sasol SciFest 2005. The debate takes place at the Monument Guy Butler Theatre at 2pm on March 18. He will also be giving the Cecily Niven Memorial Lecture on March 19 at 3.30pm at the Monument Olive Schreiner Hall