By Mary Rice - Mongabay An emerging narrative is that elephant poaching has declined, yet evidence shows that the illegal trade in ivory persists, and that the involvement of organized crime in it keeps growing. Despite big and news-making seizures of illegal ivory...
By Stephanie Klarmann - Daily Maverick Kruger National Park’s centenary prompts an urgent call to balance rhino anti‑poaching, humane elephant management and community livelihoods while protecting biodiversity and animal welfare. Kruger National Park’s centenary has...
By Adam Cruise - Daily Maverick The debate surrounding 951 elephant deaths in the Kruger National Park has largely become a discussion about conservation science. It should instead be a discussion about public accountability, the ethical limits of state authority over...
By Adam Cruise - Daily Maverick The grudging release of previously undisclosed mortality data from the Kruger National Park offers a rare glimpse into how elephants are dying. But the numbers reveal something else: how little the public knows about the decisions made...
By Don Pinnock - Daily Maverick As South Africa wrestles with elephant management, delays and a lack of accountability could push culling from a last resort to an all-too-possible outcome. Deputy Environment Minister Narend Singh told Parliament this week that culling...
By Adam Cruise - Daily Maverick The continued confinement of Lammie, Ramadiba and Mopane rests on an assumption that their needs can be met within the Johannesburg Zoo. The available evidence suggests that this assumption is no longer secure. An alternative exists....
By Adam Cruise - Daily Maverick KwaZulu-Natal’s elephant ‘overpopulation crisis’ is being presented as scientific inevitability. But official replies reveal contradictions, missing evidence and a regulatory process that has yet to catch up with the rhetoric. The claim...
By Don Pinnock - Daily Maverick A willingness to kill elephants as a management tool in North West’s Madikwe Nature Reserve suggests a shift in South Africa’s conservation approach. What was once a last resort may be becoming standard practice. t’s been a bad few...
By Stephanie Klarmann - Mongabay The latest statistics on South Africa’s professional (“trophy”) hunting industry reveal a large increase in animals hunted, with numbers set to rise in coming years, under the logic that the revenue generated is necessary for managing...
By David Akana - Mongabay Dzanga Bai is an exceptional forest clearing where hundreds of elusive forest elephants gather, offering scientists and visitors opportunities to observe their behavior, social interactions and family dynamics in the open. Mineral-rich soil...