BuaNews (Tshwane)
Vinni Dlamini
16 September 2008
Skukuza — Operations to capture six elephant bulls in the Kruger National Park began on Monday to relocate them to Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park.
The relocation comes as the reserve plans to restock the 350 000-hectare park which fell into ruin during Mozambique's 16-year civil war.
"I trust that this move will further cement the regional conservation role that the Kruger Park has assumed since the establishment of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.
"It will improve the already good working relationship we have with Mozambique," said the park's Managing Executive Dr Bandile Mkhize on Monday.
The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park includes the Kruger Park, the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe and Mozambique's Limpopo National Park.
The SANParks Veterinary Wildlife Services' game capture team, led by Dr Markus Hofmeyr, captured four young adult elephant bulls in the southern area of the park on Monday and will capture two adult elephant bulls next Monday.
"We will be using our standard elephant capturing technique of darting the elephants from a helicopter and, after a brief diagnosis of their general health, they'll be loaded onto trucks and transported by road to Gorongosa," Dr Hofmeyr explained.
Private game capture company Specialist Game Services will then transport the elephants to Gorongosa National Park near the Mozambican coastal town of Beira, a distance of over 1 300km.
The restoration of Gorongosa is being supported by the non-profit US conservation organisation, the Carr Foundation.
The foundation recently signed a 20-year co-management agreement with the Mozambican government to run the park and has invested more than $10-million to date.
Meanwhile, the 2008 Kruger Park elephant population census is currently underway. Last year's census revealed a total of 13 050 elephant in the park.
Translocating elephants is one way in which the park is attempting to control elephant numbers, while heated debates continue over the ethics of reintroducing culling.
"According to the Elephant Population Norms and Standards Document, which was released earlier this year, translocation is an acceptable means of population control," said Dr Mkhize.
"I therefore believe that by helping to re-establish viable elephant populations in other areas, we are not only bringing slight relief to our situation but also helping to repopulate depleted populations elsewhere on the sub continent."
The elephant translocation is just one project where the KNP and Gorongosa National Park are working together for conservation.
Fifty buffalo were translocated from the Skukuza Boma Complex to Gorongosa during 2006 and these will be joined by another consignment of buffalo during 2009.
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