SA-Based Group Plans Move of 500 Elephants Across Malawi

Five hundred elephants are to be transferred 185 miles across Malawi in a historic move to create a new sanctuary for elephants, according to the nonprofit African Parks.

The elephants will be moved the 300 kilometres – “one of the largest elephant translocations in human history” – in two groups of 250 each, one in July and August this year and one in the same period in 2017, according to a statement by the   Johannesburg-based non-profit African Parks, which manages numerous parks across Africa.

“There’s a paradox in Africa where elephants are in steep decline in certain places” but require population management in better-protected areas where their numbers are growing, African Parks operations director Andrew Parker was quoted saying in a British news report.

The elephants are to be moved from Liwonde and Majete national parks in the south of the country to Nkhotakota in the centre, all three of which are managed by African Parks.

African Parks said Nkhotakota has fewer than 100 elephants, with many of its other species depleted, while both the other parks are under pressure from the elephants, either from human/animal conflict or habitat degradation.

“These elephants’ greatest hope is to be assisted by African Parks in being translocated to Nkhotakota, which is being created as an elephant sanctuary for Malawi, where the poaching threat is now under control and there is sufficient habitat and security for these elephants to thrive,” said African Parks.

The Dutch PostCode Lottery, which supports charity, is reportedly a key funder of the $1.6 million relocation.