Zimbabwe to Export Baby Elephants to Raise Funding

Wildlife officials in Zimbabwe plan to export at least 62 baby elephants to raise funding for the country's national parks, where poachers threaten these pachyderms. Though the move has received public outcry from animal activists who want to know what's really going on.

African elephants poached for their valuable ivory tusks find their numbers dwindling, and Zimbabwe state parks in particular have limited government funding and patrols by game rangers, leaving the animals vulnerable.

Last year at least 300 elephants died in Hwange national park after poachers poisoned their watering holes with cyanide.

According to Jerry Gotora, chairman of the country's parks and wildlife authority, exports would start in the first quarter of next year officials decide on the young tuskers' destinations. He told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) that buyers from the United Arab Emirates want 15 elephants, China 27 and France between 15 and 20.

"We have 80,000 elephants against a carrying capacity of 42,000 and this is not sustainable in the long run," Gotora said.

However, despite Zimbabwe's good intentions, animal rights advocates believe that the capture of these baby elephants, aged between two-and-a-half and five years old, is cruel and puts their lives at risk. Elephants live in highly social, matriarchal societies, and babies depend entirely on their mother's milk for survival until about age five. Therefore separating them from their mothers, even in the interest of the population as a whole, increases the likelihood that the babies will perish.

"We are trying to speak to those who we believe brokered the deal and check on the welfare of the captured animals," Ed Lanca, ZNSPCA's (Zimbabwe's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) chairman, told The Telegraph.

But Gotora assures skeptics that the exports are both safe and necessary for the elephants.

"There is nothing unusual about the exports," Gotora told the AFP. "The major reason we are selling off the elephants is because we want to ensure sustainable use of our natural resources."

"All those making noise about it are people who do not want Zimbabwe to benefit from its resources," he added.

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