National parks
Hard to find. What’s driving this? By
Elephants’ excellent memories may also play a role. After years of persecution and war, the animals prefer the safety of parks and scoot through adjoining areas – even the communal lands in Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) that were created to be wildlife corridors. This means they spend more time feeding in parks’ desirable “high-use” zones near water, such as the riparian habitat in Mapungubwe, for longer than is ideal.
In the past, as Stockil says, people lived on the Runde’s banks, before they moved out of Gonarezhou. People’s presence may have protected the trees. Now, things have changed. The same could be said for areas along the Limpopo River in the Makuleke area of Kruger, and Mapungubwe.
Bob Mandinyenya, head of Scientific Services in Gonarezhou, is looking at where elephants choose to spend their time as he completes his PhD. Are they moving from Gonarezhou to other landscapes, and how safely can they do so? Collared animals are starting to give him an idea. So far, cows and calves have remained close to home.
Some males, however, are moving across borders. One bull moved south across Zimbabwe’s Mwenezi River towards SA, only to turn back. It then recruited another collared bull (possibly with more uncollared companions) and made it all the way to northern Kruger.
Bulls have also made forays east through the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area towards Mozambique. They have not yet reached Banhine National Park. “We need to encourage this movement,” says Mandinyenya. “Our elephant population is substantially high and some damage is being caused to vegetation. But other population control measures like culling didn’t work in the 1970s and won’t work now. Movement to areas like Banhine, which has under 200 elephant, is ideal.”
Wigley-Coetsee also has high hopes for the TFCAs. “As long as we create safe corridors, I think they will move. Through studying the genetics of Kruger elephants, we know they go to Zimbabwe, to Gonarezhou and even all the way to Chobe. It’s important to create these corridors to relieve seasonal pressure.”