HWANGE, Zimbabwe (AP) — When GPS-triggered alerts show an elephant herd heading toward villages near Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, Capon Sibanda springs into action. He posts warnings in WhatsApp groups before speeding off on his bicycle to inform nearby residents without phones or network access.
The new system of tracking elephants wearing GPS collars was launched last year by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the International Fund for Animal Welfare. It aims to prevent dangerous encounters between people and elephants, which are more frequent as climate change worsens competition for food and water.
“When we started it was more of a challenge, but it’s becoming phenomenal,” said Sibanda, 29, one of the local volunteers trained to be community guardians.
For generations, villagers banged pots, shouted or burned dung to drive away elephants. But worsening droughts and shrinking resources have pushed the animals to raid villages more often, destroying crops and infrastructure and sometimes injuring or killing people.
Zimbabwe’s elephant population is estimated at around 100,000, nearly double the land’s capacity. The country hasn’t culled elephants in close to four decades. That’s because of pressure from wildlife conservation activists, and because the process is expensive, according to parks spokesman Tinashe Farawo.
Hey, here’s a thought: elephants are fucking smart, so maybe figure out a way to live symbiotically with them? Might start a whole cultural movement if you do it right.
Living in tandem with animals that can weight 12000lbs is easier said than done. Especially when the entire continent is being ravaged by global warming caused by the west.
Complaining about the global south not doing enough while they basically bare no fault to global warming is incredibly tone deaf. If ppl want a global green revolution the ppl who kicked off the industrial revolution should foot the bill. But we all know they won’t. They won’t even return the shit they’ve stolen from the continents they’ve colonized
Part of what I’m saying is that living in an arthropocentric fashion may not be optimal in the long term
and killing off older males have a very disastrous result on local wildlife too, thats what they originally did to cull problematic populations.