Five elephant families move to a new home will help regenerate park ecosystem

“We have ticked every box and can happily say it was a successful operation.”

This is according to Anban Padayachee, a conservation manager for South African National Parks (SANParks) after they translocated 42 elephants from Addo Elephant National Park to the Kabouga section of the park in the Eastern Cape.

The translocation process, which took four days, began long before the announcement of reintroducing elephants to the Kabouga area, 50km away, which has not had elephants for more than a century.

“Before we could even think about moving the elephants, we had to secure the section [where the elephants would be relocated]”, said Padayachee. “So we erected a 90km fence, which took a year and a half to construct. We had to get our scientists to evaluate the quantity and quality of the vegetation [to ensure it could support the new elephant population].

“We decided to start conservatively by reintroducing 42 elephants. Also, later this year, the fence between this section and the Darlington section [of the park] will be removed. The elephants from the Darlington section will move into this area as well,” said Padayachee, who’s been at the park for more than 23 years. 

“We do this to prevent further future damage to an area, and  to expand the range of the elephants and their ecosystem benefits.”