Culling of Elephants

WWF does not advocate culling and regards it as an option of last resort.  The decision to cull is indeed an agonizing choice, but it is one made entirely by the governments concerned and there is no international involvement in those decisions.  However, we will continue to provide help wherever possible with other management options, especially relating to range expansion.  World Wildlife Fund continues to explore alternatives to culling including:

• Translocation – In South Africa, WWF has helped to relocate elephants to an un-populated park in Mozambique
• Conserving migration corridors – WWF is supporting the Peace Parks Foundation to link South African elephants with those of the Maputo Elephant Reserve in Mozambique to ensure elephants can still move along traditional migration routes
• Conflict mitigation – working with local people and park staff to apply modern methods to reduce conflict between humans and elephants to make co-existence more feasible.
• Supporting IUCN to develop technical guidelines for dealing with the local over-population of elephants.
• Contraception – regulating elephant breeding artificially

We have worked tirelessly to protect the African elephant and we will continue to focus our efforts on this vital conservation challenge.

Learn more about some of the WWF Conservation Results related to Elephants.