South African Transboundary Project
Save the Elephants in South Africa was started in the late 1990 and is supported by Marlene and David McCay. Marlene, a trustee of Save the Elephant launched the Transboundary Elephant Programme which, employs two ecologists and a research assistant, based at Tanda Tula Safari Camp, in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve
We follow elephant movements across private conservation reserves, into the great Kruger national park, and over the border into Mocambique. The vast protected system the elephants inhabit has been called the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. More than 80% of South African elephants live here. Their conservation can often be contentious with the pro and anti culling lobbies strongly putting forward opposing views. However, everyone agrees that to
create an effective elephant management plan we urgently require good distribution and habitat interaction data. The management objectives of diverse landowners need to be reconciled with the free movements of elephants within an area as large as the Netherlands. Our aim is to establish to what extent elephant movements are driven by habitat
quality, risk and the elephant's social landscape. Trophy hunting of bull elephants selectively removes the older, larger animals from the elephant population. These are individuals at their reproductive prime, and also appear to key role in maintaining a state of harmony within elephant society. Green hunting was proposed as a more appropriate way of generating the income needed to manage the privately owned conservation areas. Instead of shooting an elephant bull, the hunter was could stalk and dart the animal in the field. The immobilised elephant was then fitted with a GPScollar and integrated into a registered research programme. The first four bulls were green hunted in the late 90s. In May 2002, we darted a large tusked bull, Mac, probably the largest bull being tracked in Africa, and
he has provided with what we believe is the longest unbroken record of movements for any African elephant.
Our project now has 30 GPS-collars deployed in two focal areas. Twenty-two in the western Kruger NP and adjacent Private Nature Reserves (Klaserie, Timbavati, Umbabat and Balule PNRs) and eight in the north-eastern Kruger NP and Limpopo NP, Mozambique.
We follow elephant movements across private conservation reserves, into the great Kruger national park, and over the border into Mocambique. The vast protected system the elephants inhabit has been called the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. More than 80% of South African elephants live here. Their conservation can often be contentious with the pro and anti culling lobbies strongly putting forward opposing views. However, everyone agrees that to
create an effective elephant management plan we urgently require good distribution and habitat interaction data. The management objectives of diverse landowners need to be reconciled with the free movements of elephants within an area as large as the Netherlands. Our aim is to establish to what extent elephant movements are driven by habitat
quality, risk and the elephant's social landscape. Trophy hunting of bull elephants selectively removes the older, larger animals from the elephant population. These are individuals at their reproductive prime, and also appear to key role in maintaining a state of harmony within elephant society. Green hunting was proposed as a more appropriate way of generating the income needed to manage the privately owned conservation areas. Instead of shooting an elephant bull, the hunter was could stalk and dart the animal in the field. The immobilised elephant was then fitted with a GPScollar and integrated into a registered research programme. The first four bulls were green hunted in the late 90s. In May 2002, we darted a large tusked bull, Mac, probably the largest bull being tracked in Africa, and
he has provided with what we believe is the longest unbroken record of movements for any African elephant.
Our project now has 30 GPS-collars deployed in two focal areas. Twenty-two in the western Kruger NP and adjacent Private Nature Reserves (Klaserie, Timbavati, Umbabat and Balule PNRs) and eight in the north-eastern Kruger NP and Limpopo NP, Mozambique.