#elephant

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There is a certain irony to World Elephant Day celebrations

World Elephant Day has been celebrated globally since 2012. But why was it launched? What triggered this movement? Since its inception, are we still glossing over the oversimplified rhetoric of “care” and “love”, or are we engaging with the systemic crisis wild and captive elephant populations face to survive? Most importantly, how do elephants persist in a world where the human gaze, often wrapped in love and care, is riddled with contradictions? A world exceedingly influenced by both changing spatial and digital realities? A world of paradoxes Elephants are among the few mammals celebrated across Asia for many reasons. They are worshipped, hold cultural importance, and are deeply entwined in history, traditional folklore, and pop culture across religions. For thousands of years, they have also been captured for labour: in war, timber extraction, construction, religious and ceremonial work, and tourism. Let’s not forget the colonised elephants, considered valuable to the empire and forced to support Western colonial exploits in Asia and Africa. They were used as gifts and continue to be privately owned as symbols of status. Asian captive elephants continue to be assets, commodified for capital and entertainment. Come 2026, elephants continue to navigate a world of shared spaces...

www.africanelephantjournal.com

The 951 dead elephants in the Kruger Park and a question everyone should be asking

The grudging release of previously undisclosed mortality data from the Kruger National Park offers a rare glimpse into how elephants are dying. But the numbers reveal something else: how little the public knows about the decisions made in managing one of the world’s most important elephant populations. For more than a century the African elephant has occupied a unique place in South Africa’s conservation imagination. It is our largest land mammal, a keystone species that shapes ecosystems, a major drawcard for tourism and perhaps the single most recognisable symbol of the Kruger National Park. Few animals have generated as much scientific debate or public emotion. That debate has often centred on numbers. Are there too many elephants? Are they transforming woodlands? Should populations be controlled? Should culling ever return? These questions have divided scientists, conservationists and policymakers for decades. What has received remarkably little public attention is a different question: how many elephants actually die in Kruger every year, and why? Until now, the answer has been surprisingly difficult to obtain. Recent mortality records hard won from the Kruger Park provide the first comprehensive glimpse into elephant deaths recorded between January 2020 and December 2025. The database, maintained as part...

www.africanelephantjournal.com

Kruger elephant deaths: The question SANParks still hasn't answered

The debate surrounding 951 elephant deaths in the Kruger National Park has largely become a discussion about conservation science. It should instead be a discussion about public accountability, the ethical limits of state authority over wildlife, and why every deliberate killing of a wild elephant demands individual justification. Howard Hendricks and Sam Ferreira are undoubtedly correct in observing that elephant management is among the most demanding responsibilities confronting conservation authorities. Few people with any familiarity with African protected areas would deny that managers are frequently required to navigate extraordinarily difficult circumstances in which ecological integrity, human safety, biodiversity conservation and animal welfare do not always point towards the same outcome. Conservation, particularly in a landscape as vast and socially complex as the Kruger National Park, is rarely an exercise in certainty or simple moral choices. Yet complexity, important though it is, cannot become a substitute for accountability. My previous article did not question whether conservation managers occasionally encounter situations in which the destruction of an elephant may be unavoidable. Nor did it suggest that every one of the 207 elephants recorded in SANParks’ mortality database as “Management” deaths was necessarily killed without justification. Such a conclusion would itself be irresponsible...

www.africanelephantjournal.com

Conservation groups demand independent probe into deaths of 15 Amboseli elephants

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 4 — Conservation organisations have called for an independent investigation into the deaths of fifteen elephants in Amboseli National Park, saying preliminary findings linking the animals to cyanide poisoning expose dangerous gaps in Kenya’s pesticide regulation and wildlife protection. The coalition, comprising the Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW), Nature Kenya, the Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN), the Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya (BIBA Kenya) and the Route to Food Initiative, said the incident should be treated as a national environmental emergency requiring urgent action. “The deaths of these elephants are not an isolated tragedy. They are a stark warning that hazardous pesticides continue to pose grave risks to wildlife, ecosystems and human health,” the organisations said in a joint statement. According to the lobby groups, preliminary investigations indicate the elephants died after ingesting cyanide-contaminated substances, raising fresh concerns over the use, storage and enforcement of controls on highly hazardous chemicals. The organisations warned that the poisoning underscores systemic weaknesses in Kenya’s pesticide governance, arguing that chemicals banned or severely restricted elsewhere remain accessible despite their potential to harm wildlife and communities. “This incident demonstrates the urgent need to strengthen regulation, monitoring and enforcement of hazardous...

www.africanelephantjournal.com

Elephant culling: Why Africa remains deeply divided over this issue

Elephant culling divides opinion like few conservation issues. For some, it is a practical response to growing elephant populations in fenced reserves. For others, it is an ethical failure that ignores science and the complexity of elephant societies. As southern Africa debates new proposals, the question remains whether killing elephants solves a problem or creates another. The discussion reaches beyond wildlife management. It touches tourism, rural livelihoods, biodiversity and the future of Africa’s landscapes. Understanding both sides helps explain why this debate continues. WHY IS ELEPHANT CULLING PROPOSED? Supporters argue that some protected areas now hold more elephants than their habitats can sustain. South Africa’s largest free-ranging population lives in Kruger National Park, where elephants move across a vast ecosystem. However, many smaller reserves are fenced, limiting natural migration. Managers fear that large elephant populations can damage woodlands by pushing over mature trees and stripping bark. This can reduce habitat for birds, insects and browsing animals. Some conservationists also argue that drought can increase pressure on food and water, leaving managers with difficult choices. Human and elephant conflict adds another challenge. Across Africa, expanding agriculture, settlements and fencing have reduced traditional migration routes. The result is more crop damage, property...