ELEPHANTS FED TO CASH CROCS

Oh no! Does anyone in that country ever stop to think for a moment! Think about the fact that their actions could have serious implications!

Elephants are extremely social creatures and they have a very complicated family infrastructure - you can't just kill one elephant or even two and leave it at that, you would need to destroy the entire herd, from the oldest matriach to the youngest baby!

The saying "have a memory like an elephant" is not a myth. If one animal is murdered in the herd the rest know what have happened and it could mean that they will go on the rampage - this in turn would mean that they would 'turn on' humans - not only the ones that did the 'murdering' but also any that they happen to come across. This of course would include farmers, tourists and many more innocent bystanders.

Oh the folly of greed!

Elephants fed to cash crocs

March 11 2007 at 10:41AM


By Eleanor Momberg

Zimbabwe's national parks and wildlife management authority is killing elephants near Lake Kariba to feed to crocodiles at a parks-owned commercial crocodile farm. Johnny Rodrigues, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF), says the guardians of Zimbabwe's national parks have entered the lucrative crocodile breeding business and have allocated 50 to 100 elephants a year to feed the crocodiles. "They have shot three already. We are looking into allegations that other crocodile farms in the country are being supplied with elephant meat from culls in conservation areas," said Rodrigues.

Geoff Blyth, a Kariba resident, this week sent out an international e-mail appeal to help save the elephants of Lake Kariba, saying national parks had been given the go-ahead to build their own crocodile farm in the Kaburi wilderness area, on the shore opposite two popular tourist attractions. Crocodile farming is a lucrative business, with owners of such ventures earning millions through the sale and export of skins for the manufacture of leather products such as handbags and shoes, as well as the sale of the reptiles' meat, a delicacy among local communities. While Blyth saw nothing wrong with the planned development, he was concerned about the proposal that crocodiles were to be fed elephant meat. He questioned the need to cull elephants in the area, saying they did not have enough to sustain the proposed quota of 50 to 100 pachyderms a year. Also of concern was the fact that most elephants in Kariba were habituated to humans. "If they shoot even 50, that will be the end of our Kariba elephant population," said Blyth's e-mail.

The placing of the crocodile breeding facility would see officials having "direct access to any elephant wandering past, and the remaining buffalo and whatever is left there to feed their crocs". Blyth said an elephant caught in a snare had recently been shot so that officials could determine how many elephants a year would be required to keep their crocodiles fed. "They are destroying everything," said Blyth. "We are researching the matter, because we believe there is a silent cull going on. More and more tourists are complaining they are not seeing any game.