Whyte, Ian J., 2004: Ecological basis of the new elephant management policy for Kruger National Park and expected outcomes. Pachyderm uary- e; 36: 99-108 In 1995, a moratorium was placed on culling elephants in Kruger National Park (KNP) while its elephant management policy was being reviewed. This review resulted in a completely new policy in which maintaining KNPs indigenous biodiversity is the primary objective. Managing for maximum biodiversity will be achieved through principles outlined in the intermediate disturbance hypothesis and by inducing elephant population fluctuations, which it is believed will also play an important role. For these purposes KNP was divided into six zones: two will be botanical reserves in which medium densities of elephants will be maintained, two will be low-elephant-impact zones where elephant densities will be actively reduced through management, while the final two will be high-elephant-impact zones where no elephant management will be conducted and densities will be allowed to increase. Management options for the low-elephant-impact zones and the high-elephant-impact zones will be reversed, once biodiversity monitoring programmes indicate that acceptable thresholds of change have been reached or exceeded. KNP zoning was based on results of research on elephant clan movements. It is believed that zoning along natural clan boundaries will limit movements of elephants between zones once the policy is implemented.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 09:11:47 +0000
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