Pack your trunk, let’s hit the road
Jumbo project will truck 60 elephants to Mozambique
● A massive operation is under way to capture 60 wild elephants in KwaZulu-Natal and transport them more than 1 000km to a new home in Mozambique.
Catching and moving the largest land animal on the planet is no easy task, considering a fully grown African elephant can weigh between three and six tons.
But South African game-capture expert Kester Vickery has lots of practice, having shifted nearly 1 200 elephants between various reserves across Africa in recent years.
Vickery and his crew are now moving jumbos from Ithala and Mkhuze by lorry to Zinave National Park in Mozambique — almost equivalent to driving from Johannesburg to Cape Town, but on rough dirt roads and through border posts in three nations.
The first 30 elephants, some of them barely six months old, were captured in the Mkhuze section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park last week and a further 30 will be captured in Ithala game reserve this week.
Mkhuze and Ithala are both relatively small (around 30 000ha) and have too many elephants, while Zinave (almost 400 000ha) was almost emptied of wildlife during three decades of civil war.
Now, Zinave is being restocked with the help of donor groups and wildlife agencies in South Africa, including the Peace Parks Foundation and the Elephants, Rhinos and People group.
Vickery, head of the Conservation Solutions animal translocation outfit, says catching and moving so many animals safely over great distances takes months of preparation and liaison with government, wildlife and customs officials in South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique.
Until fairly recently, such ambitious elephant translocations were not feasible, leaving conservation officials with two management choices — killing some of the animals, or contraception.
The latest capture operation started with ground crews positioning heavy trucks, mobile cranes and other equipment in the vicinity of a family group of elephant cows and calves that had been earmarked in advance.
In the air, helicopter pilot Vere van Heerden shepherded the herd slowly towards the capture team while wildlife vet Dr Andre Uys prepared to immobilise several animals with a darting gun.
Each dart contains a percussion device that injects a powerful cocktail of veterinary drugs into the animal’s body that will knock them down within about four minutes and keep them sedated for almost an hour, if necessary.
The helicopter radio crackles to life as Van Heerden warns the ground crew to get ready as seven elephants have been darted in quick succession.
Rangers, vets and other members of the support team race forward in a cloud of dust to where the drugged animals are about to fall — and also guard the team in case any undrugged elephants should attack.
Trucks equipped with massive cranes arrive to lift the elephants into a sturdy wakeup bay, where Cooper and fellow vets inject an antidote drug.
Thick coils of fibre are wound round the animals’ legs so they can be hoisted — gently, but upside down — into the tall translocation truck compartments.
In they go slowly, seven elephants ranging in weight from a 3.3-ton matriarch to a tiny 270kg calf.
Bernard van Lente, the Peace Parks Foundation project manager in Zinave, said: “Unlike South Africa, parks in Mozambique tend to not have fences.
“But an 18 600ha fenced sanctuary has been created within Zinave, as part of a rehabilitative plan, into which the elephants will first be released.
“This will keep the elephants separated from communities and ensure they settle into their new area. There is already a family herd that has been resident in the sanctuary for the past year.”
Over the last three years the foundation has helped restock the park with more than 1 200 animals of various species.
Unlike South Africa, parks in Mozambique tend to not have fences. But an 18 600ha fenced sanctuary has been created . . . into which the elephants will first be released
Bernard van Lente
Peace Parks Foundation project manager in Zinave National Park