Elephants in Botswana
TurquoiseTastic
Kerygmania Host
in Purgatory
Some forthright comments from the president of Botswana about Western attitudes to trophy hunting. Essentially he is saying that Westerners overvalue wildlife vis-a-vis Botswanans and that if we're so keen on elephants, we should try living with 20,000 of them in Hyde Park. Is he right?
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The population of Botswana has been steadily climbing from about 600,000 in 1970 to 2.6 million now: an increase of 2 million people over 50 years: more than a factor of 4. There are no indications that that rate of increase is changing.
Surely this is why the rate of human-wildlife conflict in Botswana is going up? It's not that there are too many elephants, it's that there are too many people.
While lions can sometimes prey on elephants they aren't a big check on their numbers. I suspect that African ecosystems developed they way they have over the past half a million years because elephants were kept in check by humans.
That is, African megafauna has evolved alongside human hunter gatherers, which is why Africa still has a megafauna and the American megafauna did not survive the arrival of humans.
The issue of luxury game lodges and safari experiences for tourists has been critiqued by a number of post-colonial writers including Njabulo Ndebele and Jacob Dlamini (Safari Nation) who have pointed out that such resorts are located in inhospitable regions with few chances of local employment, unsustainable, are a waste of water resources (jacuzzis, plunge pools and artificial watering holes for foreigners) and privilege the feeding and maintenance of animal species over the needs of indigenous peoples in such areas. Luxury game lodges and eco-safaris are not affordable for most Black people; Ndebele describes the safari as 'leisure colonialism' and is among those who would rather spend state funds on the upliftment of local communities.
On the other hand, the last major pristine wilderness areas with populations of wild animals able to live free are only found in Africa. There is an ethical eco-conservative movement worldwide to preserve these areas and ensure the survival of threatened species. Vast eco-conservancies found from Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in southern Africa, the Luangwa Plains in Zambia or Kisampa Conservancy and eco-lodges in Tanzania are crucial to the survival of many species and certain fauna (as @Dafyd noted above). Conservancies are likely to encompass a wider diversity of habitats than fenced ranches, and permit the reintroduction and effective conservation of a greater number of species. In addition, several large mammal species require areas larger than the average game ranch.
To send herds of elephant to Europe to live in captivity or roam city parks (!) would of course be a death sentence for elephant removed from the African mega-fauna and it is an ironic suggestion intended only to indicate Western sentimentality and fantasy about wildlife.
If you are fortunate enough to be able to afford a vacation at an eco-lodge in a wilderness area, you may be among the last generation able to see wild herds and predators in their natural habitat.
From time to time, acquaintances in Europe or the United States email and ask me about safety. The biggest danger on any eco- safari is not the prides of lion, herds of elephant, cheetah or leopard, or even the prevalence of snakes. The anopheles mosquito is the real killer and many travellers do fall ill with malaria. Medications taken to ward off malaria have unpleasant side effects, including psychotic episodes.
At the same time, anyone travelling and staying in a remote game reserve needs to remember that they are essentially in an open-air zoo without fences, and surrounded by deadly predators. Each year, undisclosed numbers of tourists and staff at lodges are killed by wild animals and this is often represented as being due to the foolishness or carelessness of the humans involved. That may not be the case. Elephant in must are extremely aggressive on the rampage, and a wounded leopard or lion will turn to humans as the easiest prey around.
Unless you are with experienced rangers in a well-monitored area, night drives should be avoided because of nocturnal predators. On daylight game drives, it is worth remembering that small children should not be in the game viewing vehicle because high-pitched children's voices or crying toddlers signals a wounded animal as prey to lion or packs of hyena. People should not wear fragrances or smell of alcohol since these are known irritants to animals downwind of vehicles.
If the vehicle is charged, the drivers are trained to reverse at high speed, so those aboard need to get down behind seats and use emergency safety belts. The rifles carried by rangers will only be used as a last resort because the speed and ferocity of attacks is so sudden. Predatory animals are killing machines but even those wild creatures regarded as 'harmless' or lovable (giraffe, galagos, baby monkeys) are capable of biting or attacking humans if startled or alarmed. All of us from Eurocentric or urban backgrounds have grown up (I include myself here) with sentimental and romantic notions about wilderness and wildlife. The reality of encountering dangerous species on their home territory or attempting to domesticate feral creatures is very different.
However I have been fortunate to visit Tanzania and S Africa. Seeing
herds of elephants in the wild and encountering a bull elephant in must have been among the most amazing and moving experiences of my life. And yes, the rangers are incredibly skilled at reversing at high speed!
That's, umm, not very good. Lousy scanning, just for starters.
It took me about five seconds to come up with "Is best confined to bed" for a better flow.
Also, when Paul Eluard the surrealist said that "elephants are contagious", he meant that you can contract an elephant like you contract a disease, which is delightfully surreal. Whereas Milligan seems to mean that elephants can spread disease. Which...they can.
And AI doubles down on the stupid...
Therefore, every work of art deserves nothing but praise?
I am very much not a fan of trophy hunting - not from a conservancy point of view, because it's possible for trophy hunting programmes to be a net positive on that front, but because of what "I want to kill this lion / tiger / elephant, because it's cool" says about the person doing the killing.
Spike already had it, Duirt me leat go raibh me breoite (on his gravestone, 'I told you I was ill').
Yes, on the same principle of not employing sadists as executioners - you don’t want to feed the already problematic personality traits - because they may then do things that become more extremely problematic.