3 days ago
- General
- South China Morning Post
Zimbabwe to cull elephants and distribute meat to people
Zimbabwe will cull dozens of elephants and distribute the meat for consumption to ease the ballooning population of the animals, its wildlife authority said on Tuesday.
Advertisement
The southern African country is home to the second-biggest elephant population in the world after Botswana.
The cull at a vast private game reserve in the southeast would initially target 50 elephants, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) said in a statement.
It did not say how many of the animals would be killed in total or over what period.
An aerial survey in 2024 showed the reserve, the Save Valley Conservancy, had 2,550 elephants, more than triple its carrying capacity of 800, ZimParks said.
Advertisement
At least 200 have been translocated to other parks over the past five years.
