Zimbabwe to cull dozens of elephants to curb population and distribute meat to communities

The southern African country, Zimbabwe, announced on Tuesday that it will slaughter dozens of elephants to control the population size and the meat from the carcasses will be distributed among the people.Zimbabwe has the world's second largest elephant population after Botswana. Zimbabwe’s wildlife agency, Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) said it has given permission to Save Valley Conservancy, a large private game reserve in the southeast, to carry out the elephant population control program.The wildlife agency said it will first kill 50 elephants. It didn’t say how many will be killed in total or how long the process will take.According to a recent 2024 aerial survey, there are 2,550 elephants living in Save Valley Conservancy, however, the land can only support 800 elephants. Too many elephants can lead to damage to the ecosystem, including plants and other animals. The agency believes that reducing the number of elephants is necessary to protect the area.

Over the past five years, at least 200 elephants have been translocated to other parks.

In a statement, ZimParks said, "Elephant meat from the management exercise will be distributed to local communities while ivory will be state property that will be handed over to the ZimParks for safekeeping."Zimbabwe can’t sell the ivory tusks due to worldwide ban on ivory trading.ZimParks spokesman Tinashe Farawo told ABC News on Wednesday that the "management exercise" is "not culling," as the latter "involves wiping [out] the whole herd in huge numbers." He did not respond to a question about how many elephants will be killed in total or how long the process will take.Last year, the wildlife authorities in Zimbabwe culled 200 elephants to provide food for communities that suffered from the drought. It was the first major cull since 1988 that took place in districts such as Hwange, Mbire, Tsholotsho and Chiredzi.The move to hunt the elephants for food has drawn sharp criticism worldwide, mainly because elephants are a source of attraction to many tourists.