Back in 1980, I spent an afternoon visiting an American on his ranch in central Kenya, He had a very large spread and had installed “Elephence”, a particularly effective fence designed to keep game park animals from marauding neighboring villages. He also had his own private squad of game rangers to prevent poaching.
His wildlife management practices were so effective that he eventually had more elephants & rhino than the land could support. He offered these excess animals to the government of Kenya for transplant to various game parks. Kenya replied, “Thank you very much, but we will not be able to protect them from being killed by poachers”.
What is your solution to problems of this type?
1)Let the overcrowding continue, resulting in malnourished large animals and destroyed forest & brush land.
2)Let wealthy hunters cull the herd to maintain both a healthy herd AND a healthy rangeland.
3)Fire his game rangers and let the poachers kill indiscriminately for ivory and rhino horn.
4)Remove the “Elephence” and allow the herds to “expand their range” into neighboring villages and farmer’s fields. The wildlife may no longer be malnourished, but the local people sure will be.
5)Cull the herds of people by promoting abortion and contraception. Stop using DDT to prevent malaria, dengue and other mosquito borne diseases.
5)Fill in the blank____________________
5. Leave them alone.
They managed to get to a population of 850,000 last century without being shot. They managed just fine dealing with the older Bulls. Man doesn’t have all the answers.