In Zimbabwe, Africa, 200 elephants will be slaughtered to combat food shortages

Zimbabwe to cull 200 elephants to tackle food shortages caused by the worst drought in decades in southern Africa, announced the authority responsible for wildlife, following the example of Namibia.

The country has “more elephants than it needs,” Zimbabwe’s environment minister told parliament on Wednesday, adding that he had ordered the country’s Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) to carry out the cull.

They say they don’t need all the elephants out there

“Zimbabwe has more elephants than we need and we have more elephants than our forests can accommodate. We are talking to ZimParks (Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife) and some local communities about the issue,” Environment, Climate and Wildlife Minister Sithembiso Nyoni told EFE.

The 200 elephants will be hunted in the Hwange nature reservethe largest in the country, ZimParks CEO Fulton Mangwanya told AFP.

Zimbabwe is estimated to have around 100,000 elephants, the second largest population in the world after Botswana.

“We will do what Namibia has done before, that is, We will cull the elephants and mobilize our local women to collect the meat and dry it to benefit the communities as food. protein,” Nyoni added.

ZimParks claims that only in Hwange are there 65,000 of these mammals, four times more than the park can accommodate.

In early September, Namibia announced it had begun culling more than 700 wild animals, including 83 elephants, to feed people suffering from hunger as a result of the worst drought in decades.

The goal was not only to provide meat to thousands of people, but relieve pressure on drought-depleted water resources, the government said.

Both Namibia and Zimbabwe are among the southern African countries that have declared a state of emergency due to drought.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates that There are only about 415,000 elephants left on the continent (compared to 3-5 million at the beginning of the 20th century).

Asian and African elephants are considered endangered, with the exception of populations in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, which are considered only “vulnerable”.