Yahoo – AFP, August 3, 2017
Blantyre
(Malawi) (AFP) - Malawi on Thursday celebrated the successful conclusion of a
two-year project moving 520 sedated elephants by truck to a reserve where the
animals had been nearly wiped out by poaching.
Described
as one of the biggest-ever wildlife translocations, the elephants were
transported 350 kilometres (220 miles) from two southern parks to the
Nkhotakota reserve in the centre of the country.
"We
have taken extraordinary measures to secure a future for Malawi's elephants,
and at the same time are helping people who live around these critically
important wild areas," said Brighton Kumchedwa of the national parks
department.
The
elephant population in Nkhotakota fell from 1,500 to just 100 in 2015. Since
then security work and community relation programmes have made the reserve safe
for wildlife.
Africa
Parks, a conservation organisation that led the translocation, described it as
"historic", adding that 261 elephants were moved last year and the remainer
this year.
Only two
elephants died in the process, which was completed on August 2.
The
elephants were selected family by family and darted from a helicopter, before
being winched by their legs into crates on the back of 30-tonne trucks.
They were
driven overnight from the two parks, which had a overpopulation of elephants,
to their new home in Nkhotakota.
Their new
home is now surrounded by a high electric fence and has also re-filled with
buffalo, antelope, warthog and zebra.
"This
successful translocation is a pivotal moment for Malawi," said Peter
Fearnhead, head of African Parks.
"Rehoming
more than 500 elephants, and knowing they will thrive in Nkhotakota, is a story
of hope and survival, and a real example of what is possible with good
collaboration."
Britain's
Prince Harry assisted in the first stage of the relocation.
Project
organisers said there were more than 10 million African elephants 100 years
ago, but only an estimated 450,000 remain today.
About
40,000 are poached every year to feed the insatiable demand for ivory.
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