Elephants are not just the world’s largest land animal, but also a keystone species that has a significant impact on the ecosystem in which they dwell. Although this famous species has been in the wild for 15 million years, today’s ivory poaching, human-wildlife conflict, and habitat deterioration pose the greatest challenges to its existence .African elephants can be found in the following nations: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan
Number of elephants in south Africa
Today, there are roughly 24,000 elephants in South Africa, a significant increase from the 1920s, when there were only 150 left in the entire nation. There are roughly 17,000 elephants in world-famous Kruger Park today, much beyond an earlier targeted maximum of about 7,500.
Over the past two decades, dozens of private reserves have been established, and their rapidly expanding elephant populations have run up against the limits of their fences and finances. Elephant populations are increasing by more than 15% annually, which is twice the average rate, in some areas.
The congestion
Due to congestion, the De Beers diamond business, which manages a private reserve in South Africa, declared in July that 200 elephants will be moved to Mozambique. Only 60 elephants can live in the 32,000-hectare reserve, but there are now 270, putting the ecology in risk of “severe devastation,” according to the organization.
Strategies to control their population
Elephants were frequently killed in South Africa to reduce the population until the mid-1990s. This is no longer an option due to the public outcry against culling, so different strategies are being tested. Artificial waterholes have been diminished or removed, which is somewhat helpful. The idea of creating wildlife corridors between reserves has been floated, but acquiring the necessary property can be challenging. It is a pricey and complicated alternative, but hundreds of extra elephants have been relocated to other reserves or other nations. As a result, more and more reserves are using contraception.
