Zimbabwean authorities said they would be killing a number of elephants and distribute the meat to its people to eat.
According to the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, this measure was to reduce the population of the animals.
“The management quota is meant to address the growing elephant population in the region and will initially target 50 elephants,” the agency said in a statement.
“According to the 2024 aerial survey, there are 2,550 elephants against an ecological carrying capacity of 800 elephants in Save Valley Conservancy.”
The reserve has translocated 200 elephants to other areas in the southern African nation over the past five years “to manage the elephant population and protect the wildlife habitat,” according to ZimParks.
“Elephant meat from the management exercise will be distributed to local communities while ivory will be State property that will be handed over to the ZimParks for safekeeping,” the agency added.
ZimParks spokesperson Tinashe Farawo told ABC News on Wednesday that the “management exercise” is “not culling,” as the latter “involves wiping [out] the whole herd in huge numbers.” He did not respond to a question about how many elephants in total will be killed in this instance and over what period of time.
Zimbabwe is home to the second-largest population of elephants in the world, after neighboring Botswana. With ABC news reports
Zimbabwe elephants...soon to be meat