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The Greater Kruger National Park currently has an elephant population of over 31,000 animals. This is just not sustainable.

There are no easy or "warm & fuzzy" answers to this. This podcast lays out a bit of the history of the "elephant management" issues, where it comes from, some of the main players in the ongoing debate - and the final question: How do we fix it?

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Here are some selected references:

Barnes, R. F. W., Craig, G. C. & Dublin, H. T. (2010). The African Elephant: Status, Ecology and Management. Cambridge University Press.

Cumming, D. H. M. (1997). “Elephants, woodlands and biodiversity in southern Africa.” South African Journal of Science, 93(5): 231–236.

Ferreira, S. M. et al. (2023). “Spatial trends in elephant populations in Kruger National Park.” Koedoe, 65(1): a1714.

Helm, C. & O’Connor, T. G. (2012). “Woody vegetation structure and composition under different elephant impacts in Kruger National Park.” African Journal of Ecology, 50(4): 404–413.

O’Connor, T. G., Goodman, P. S., & Clegg, B. (2007). “A functional hypothesis of the threat of local extirpation of woody plants by elephants in Africa.” Biological Conservation, 136(3): 329–345.

Owen-Smith, N. & Kerley, G. I. H. (2020). “Elephants and fire in savanna ecosystems.” Ecological Applications, 30(3): e02017.

SANParks Research Report 2023–24. South African National Parks Research and Scientific Services Directorate, Pretoria.

Conservation Action Trust (2023). “Elephant carrying capacity is an antiquated concept.”

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