One of the saddest tragedies of many to afflict Earth in the Sixth Great Extinction is the massacre of elephants on the African continent by man. Hunted relentlessly since the 19th century, the great herds that once roamed the entire continent have been
reduced to just 400,000 in fragmented pockets of habitat. Big, older males are always in man's gunsights because they carry the biggest prize: ivory tusks that can weigh up to 100 lbs each or more. It is estimated that fewer than 30 of these "big tuskers" remain in the wild.
Eight of them live in South Africa's Tembe Elephant Park, just south of the Mozambique border. They represent a priceless gene pool of large elephants in a herd of just 200 individuals
[photo credit, D. Whalley]. But the 74,000 acre park is running out of room for the big animals, so rangers have had to put the females on birth control since 2007. Alarmingly generations of African elephants are becoming tuskless, an evolutionary response to the unending slaughter of big tuskers in their prime breeding age. Tembe has recently received good news on October 8th when the Tembe Tusker Foundation announced it would fund expansion of the park. Established in 1980s, the park is owned and run by local Tembe people and hugely popular with foreign tourists. Tribal king, Mabhudu Tembe, told guests at a premier screening of a documentary film that parcels adjacent to the park have been identified which would allow the addition of up to 64,000 acres. More space means the Tembe elephants can be allowed to breed again.
Tembe Elephant Park enjoys wide community support and is a testament to the pride the Tembe people have in preserving their natural heritage. There have been only about five poaching incidents in the past 30 years. It is the area's largest private employer, and the Park conducts community education programs and free safari tours for Tembe people, so the can also experience the Park first-hand and come to treasure their sanctuary. Staff salaries inject $260,000 a year into the local economy, one of the most impoverished in South Africa.
In the film about Tembe elephants, Mahamba, a beloved ranger who died in 2017, visits the bones of Isilo, Zulu for "King of kings". Isilo thankfully died of old age. His tusks weighed an estimated 65 and 60 kgs, but his ivory was taken before the carcass was located by park personnel. This is the only way man should harvest elephant tusks--after their true owner has no use for them any longer.
