ELEPHANT
Translocation of
Elephant bulls and family groups
The pilot needs to herd the group to a safe clearing in the bush,
usually near an access road, and synchronizes this with the time it
takes for the drugs to take effect. The first sign of a successful
dart will be after 3 minutes when the elephant’s tail drops down and
remains limp. Young calves remain with their mothers and as such, are
only darted from the ground after the larger family members are
immobilized. Skilled flying keeps the herd from bomb-shelling after
the darts are in, as the animals only respond to the helicopter for 5
to 6 minutes once darted. Generally it will take 8 or 9 minutes for
the animal to be fully affected or approachable, and the pilot needs
to ensure that each animal is accounted for and that its recumbancy
position is monitored when it goes down.
Collaring and Elephant Range Studies
In order to fit a GPS or
Cell Phone collar, individual animals are darted. Adult bulls are
usually solitary and are therefore easy to work with. Data transmitted
via the collars has helped conservationists plot their range and
movements. Correlating these movements with rainfall distribution over
larger areas, patterns have emerged showing a trend of the impressive
journeys that elephant bulls make.
In order to monitor the movements of family groups, one elephant cow
in the group will be collared. Collars are especially helpful if the
cows are to be contracepted on an annual basis - locating a group is
guaranteed as they cannot hide away from the helicopter, and each
group can be located quickly, saving on flying time.
Contraception Research Projects
Used on elephant cows with great success, the vaccine called pZP, or
porcine zona pellucida, is non-hormonal and once administered
stimulates an immunological response in the animal. When the elephant
cow ovulates an antibody layer forms around the egg and blocks the
sperm receptor sites, preventing fertilization from taking place. For
success, the most important factor is to have a clearly defined
elephant management plan outlining the reserve’s carrying capacity,
options and long term objectives with a sound elephant identification
and monitoring program. Target animals, consisting of reproductively
active females, need to be clearly identified and profiled after which
a tailored contraceptive program is implemented to maintain a healthy
and viable population. Drop out darts administering the pZP vaccine
have a dye release mechanism, marking the cows to ensure that they are
not accidentally re-darted.
Elephant sterilization procedures
One solution to over population of elephants in smaller reserves may
lie in the permanent sterilization of selected individuals.
Vasectomised elephant bulls maintain normal hormone levels and as
such, their breeding and social behaviour remains unchanged. These
bulls will continue to go into musth, will mate without being fertile
and will maintain their social standing with other elephants. On-going
research into anatomy and the associated, advanced and complex
surgical procedures involved is being conducted by specialist overseas
vets from Disney Animal Programs, the pioneers of this project, in
collaboration with various universities, local wildlife specialists
and private elephant owners in South Africa.
Bush surgery: the anaethsitized elephant bull is carefully
prepared for surgery. Every precaution is made to ensure that the
operation is a success and after only 2 to 3 hours of surgery, the
immobilizing drugs are reversed and the elephant returns to the bush.
The
African Elephant .pdf (56kb)