Ivory Coast relocating elephants under new scheme

Conservationists are capturing and relocating elephants in Ivory Coast forced out of their traditional

habitat by encroaching humans, in the first such operation attempted in Africa’s forests.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare this week began tranquillising elephants outside the western town of Daloa, then locking them in a crate for the 10-hour drive to Assagny National Park on the southern coast.

According to IFAW, the elephants were forced out of their original homes in Marahoue National Park by human migration possibly related to the West African country’s 2010-11 post-election violence.

Ivory Coast has not conducted a recent census to determine how many forest elephants are left in the country, but conservationists estimate there are a few hundred. In Central Africa, their populations have been devastated by poaching in recent years. Forest elephants are smaller than the savannah elephants found in Africa’s eastern and southern regions. They have more oval-shaped ears and straighter tusks, and occupy dense forests stretching from Central African Republic to Liberia.

The dozen or so elephants targeted for relocation moved near Daloa two years ago and began wreaking havoc, destroying crops and killing two people including a small boy who accidentally stumbled upon elephant calves, prompting their mother to attack, IFAW said.

One calf is among those to be tranquillised and moved, the organisation said.

Elephants are widely cherished as Ivory Coast’s national animal, and the government contacted the animal welfare organisation for help to solve the problem without hunting the elephants down and contributing to the ongoing decline of forest elephant populations throughout the region, said Celine Sissler-Bienvenu, IFAW’s director for Francophone Africa. — AP