Something eerily familiar happened in KwaZulu-Natal's Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park in Africa recently.
The adult elephants were taken away and the orphaned youngsters were left to fend for themselves.
The youngsters started the path to sexual maturity. The young boys were going into lengthy 'musths', as a dog would go into heat, much longer than a normal elephant in a normal setting.
The boys ganged together. They started raping and killing white rhinos, an endangered species. They were displaying extreme aggression. The park authorities were very concerned.
Someone had the idea to bring in ten adult bulls to "straighten out" the gang of elephant thugs.
Sure enough, the mature males put the band of so called 'delinquent juveniles' in their place. The adults were reintroduced, and life turned back to normal. No more killings. The elephants and rhinos were at peace again.
Obviously, strong male and female presence's are needed in these elephants lives. The young elephants needed the adults from when they were defenseless babies through the time they were in their elephant 'teenage' years.
In the meantime, over in the United States of America there was another gang related murder in your city. Another fatherless, semi or fully orphaned teenager shot a man and then reported back to his or her gang of 'delinquent juveniles'.
Perhaps we should take a lesson from the elephants.
This project is funded by Pretoria Portland Cement.
Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park is located in northern KwaZulu Natal Province. The park extends over about 100,000 hectares of savanna, and includes a wide range of plant and animal species, including the "big five".
Unfortunately, a problem has arisen in the Park because young male elephants are killing both black and white rhino. About 40 rhino have been killed by the elephants. This behaviour had been previously noted in Pilanesberg National Park, and was ascribed to young bull elephants in musth. Musth is a state of heightened aggression associated with reproduction, and the young elephants are entering musth at around 18 years old, instead of at about 30. The normal pattern is for bulls to gradually enter musth, with the period lengthening with each event. The young bulls are entering full musth of up to 3 months at a time!
The elephant of HUP were reintroduced from Kruger Park from the early 1980's, and included mainly young orphans from culling operations. There are thus no older bulls in the park.
The solution is to create a structured heirarchy of bulls in the Park. The older bulls should suppress the musth behaviour of the younger bulls, and allow the younger bulls to become experienced in dealing with the consequences of musth.
The original of this statement can be found here.
Life and Environmental Sciences
Dr. Rob Slotow
Research Programme
slotow@biology.und.ac.za
Here is the detailed information by the biologists and scientists involved in solving this problem. As of 1999, they report that introducing adult males to the park solved the problem.
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