A bull elephant with the potential to grow into one of Africa’s largest “tuskers” has been shifted to a community-owned game reserve due to the burgeoning number of elephants in KwaZulu-Natal’s famous Tembe Elephant Park.
Tembe, a 30,000ha reserve on the SA-Mozambique border, is home to a unique gene pool of large-tusked elephants that have survived centuries of onslaughts by ivory traders, hunters and poachers across the continent.
The Tembe tuskers, which used to migrate northwards as far as the Maputo elephant reserve, are the only elephants indigenous to KwaZulu-Natal and acknowledged by wildlife experts to be among the largest-tusked elephants left in Africa.
Earlier this month, one such bull, estimated to be about 20 years old, was captured at Tembe and shifted by road to the Somkhanda Game Reserve, a 12,000ha community-owned game reserve near Pongola.
Due to concerns about migratory elephants being killed or seriously wounded in Mozambique, a small herd was fenced into the Tembe reserve in 1989.
Since then, the original herd has multiplied steadily, to the point that reserve managers began to dart female elephants with a contraception vaccine in 2007 to control population growth and ecological damage.
Many Tembe bulls also have unusually big tusks in comparison to elephants in other South African and African reserves.
According to Dr Johan Marais, a Pretoria-based wildlife vet and author of two books on Africa’s largest tuskers, there are only about 40 bulls left in Africa that qualify as true tuskers — bulls whose tusks weigh more than 45kg each.
“Apart from East Africa, nowhere have I seen so many bulls with such magnificent ivory as in Tembe.
“Even in the Kruger National Park, the average bull carries much smaller ivory than the average bull in Tembe,” said Marais.
Until recently, Tembe was home to three of the continent’s largest surviving tuskers — Isilo (who died in 2014), Makedebona (who died in 2013) and Induna (who died in 2011).
Nevertheless, several younger Tembe bulls also carry genes for large tusks, including the bull recently transferred to the Somkhanda community reserve.
As ivory continues to grow over time, the largest tusks are found on older animals, which can live to between 50 and 60 years.
Apart from East Africa, nowhere have I seen so many bulls with such magnificent ivory as in Tembe.
— Wildlife vet and author Dr Johan Marais
The Wildtrust, a non-government conservation and development group which was involved in moving the bull to Somkhanda, believes this animal will further boost the park’s tourist potential and infuse its large ivory genes into Somkhanda’s existing herd of 13 elephants.
“The Great Tuskers of Tembe are known all over the world as majestic giants.
“Bringing a Tembe elephant into Somkhanda’s herd will enable the continuation of the Tembe Tusker lineage in this reserve.
“This will not only be a massive boost for tourism here, but also contribute to the conservation efforts of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife in Tembe Elephant Park,” said Wildtrust CEO Roelie Kloppers.
The recent translocation was facilitated and funded by the Aspinall Foundation, an international animal conservation charity, with the assistance of the UK-based Albus Environmental group.
Kester Vickery, head of Conservation Solutions, which darted, captured and moved the huge bull elephant, said community-owned reserves such as Somkhanda have a major role to play in protecting and restoring flagship wildlife species such as elephant.
Last year, Vickery’s team shifted 60 elephants from KwaZulu-Natal’s Mkhuze and Ithala game reserves to Mozambique’s Zinave National Park to help restore that country’s war-ravaged wildlife population.
The Tembe Elephant Park is managed by Ezemvelo and for several years conservation authorities have been hoping to re-establish migratory links between KwaZulu-Natal and the Maputo Elephant Special Reserve, which has a population of closely related elephants.
The Wildtrust said until that dream can be achieved by dropping the border fence, wildlife custodians will have to use innovative solutions to resolve elephant population growth within a relatively small reserve such as Tembe, including contraception of female elephants and the translocation of surplus elephant bulls.
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