Elephant Management is not Difficult to Understand if you Base your Comprehension of the Subject on FACT

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The elephants of South Africa; Namibia; Botswana and Zimbabwe (particularly) are grossly in excess of their national park habitat elephant carrying capacities. In all these countries the elephant population numbers are ALL “more than 10 TIMES” bigger than their habitats can sustainably support; and that state of affairs has been developing for the last 50/60 years.

The consequence is that the elephants have now totally demolished the woodland habitats in their game reserve sanctuaries – by upwards of 90 percent. In the case of Kruger National Park in South Africa the national park’s ‘top-canopy trees’ (in its once extensive woodland habitats – not long ago widespread across the entire 8000 square miles (20 000 sq kms) of the game reserve’s extent) – have been reduced in number by “more than” 95 percent (since 1960).

Ron Thomson

I am NOT a ‘trophy hunter’ - and never have been. I am not involved in the trophy hunting safari business. I am also not a game rancher. But I have ‘administratively controlled’ professional hunters and safari outfitters in my capacity as a government game warden. I am an 80 year old ex-game warden with 60 years of continuous experience in hands-on wildlife management, and national park management, in Africa (1959 to 2019). In breakdown, I have 24 years experience in the management of national parks in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe - and in the management of the wild animal populations that lived inside those national parks; one year as the Chief Nature Conservation of the Ciskei in South Africa; three years as Director of the Bophuthatswana National Parks Board in South Africa; and I worked for three years as a professional hunter in the South African Great Karoo (taking foreign hunters on quests for plains game trophies). I discovered, however, that professional hunting was not my forte. I worked as an investigative wildlife journalist for 30 years in South Africa. I have written fifteen books and hundreds of magazine articles on the subject of wildlife management and big game hunting in Africa. Five of my books are university-level text books on wildlife management. I am a university-trained ecologist; was a member of the Institute of Biology (London) for 20 years; and was a registered chartered biologist for the European Union for 20 years. I have VAST experience in the “management hunting” of elephants, buffaloes, lions, leopards and hippos (as part of my official national park work in the control of problem animals); and I pioneered the capture of black rhino in Zimbabwe’s Zambezi Valley (1964 - 1970). My university thesis was entitled: “The Factors Affecting the Survival and Distribution of Black Rhinos in Rhodesia”. Look at my personal website if you want any further details about my experience: www.ronthomsonshuntingbooks.co.za.

Ron Thomson has 271 posts and counting. See all posts by Ron Thomson

3 thoughts on “Elephant Management is not Difficult to Understand if you Base your Comprehension of the Subject on FACT”

James Ivy
June 16, 2020 at 8:35 am
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Humans have no right in ‘wildlife management’. I think it can take care of itself

So I’ve come to the conclusion that you’re all cunts
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- Ohoty Ohotytoo
  June 23, 2020 at 11:44 am
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  Everyone has the right to be stupid, but you’re abusing the privilege.
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  - kieran patrick osullivan
    August 12, 2021 at 10:06 pm
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    Humans are put here to manage the Earth ,ask an elephant ”can you manage your population” ? you need to look at your ”thinking ”ability
    Reply