Zimbabwe’s elephant culling plan stirs debate

AFRICA’S elephant population has been dangerously declining — but not in Zimbabwe.

Authorities in the southern African country estimate that the number of its mammoth mammals currently stands at slightly more than 100 000 — up from 84 000 in 2014, when the last census was conducted — for a carrying capacity of about
45 000.

The surplus has prompted government in recent weeks to mull the mass killing of elephants — something the country last did in 1988 — as a population-control option in order to protect other wildlife, as well as the country’s vegetation.

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