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
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