> I question whether Botswana needs to kill their elephants, especially as reports have Botswana containing 1/3 of the entire African Elephant population.
Obviously killing elephants (any animal really) in large numbers is a big problem on many levels. Transporting elephants is also difficult and expensive, and more importantly you need someplace to put them. Most of the other big game reserves in Southern Africa also have problems keeping their elephant numbers in check. Where would you take them?
> And the proposed law will not fix that, hunting would only be allowed outside preservation areas.
I haven't been up there in a couple of years, but the fencing around Chobe is spotty at best, the entire riverfront is unfenced (at least the part you get to see as a visitor), so I don't think there is really a big restriction on the Elephants' freedom of movement. I am guessing this is one of the reasons why they can cause so much damage to the crops of local farmers, they aren't really fenced inside the game reserve properly.
Targeting the elephants outside the park does more to alleviate the farmers' immediate problem, but its the same population of elephants (in the broad sense, not the herd sense) inside and outside the park.
Obviously killing elephants (any animal really) in large numbers is a big problem on many levels. Transporting elephants is also difficult and expensive, and more importantly you need someplace to put them. Most of the other big game reserves in Southern Africa also have problems keeping their elephant numbers in check. Where would you take them?
> And the proposed law will not fix that, hunting would only be allowed outside preservation areas.
I haven't been up there in a couple of years, but the fencing around Chobe is spotty at best, the entire riverfront is unfenced (at least the part you get to see as a visitor), so I don't think there is really a big restriction on the Elephants' freedom of movement. I am guessing this is one of the reasons why they can cause so much damage to the crops of local farmers, they aren't really fenced inside the game reserve properly.
Targeting the elephants outside the park does more to alleviate the farmers' immediate problem, but its the same population of elephants (in the broad sense, not the herd sense) inside and outside the park.