How do you trans-locate over 70 elephants?
If the first programme last night is anything to go by I think Channel 5 has a bit of a hit on it’s hands with this new series. This first episode took a look at how you move a herd of over 70 elephants over 250 miles. This is heavy transport on a big scale.
The elephants needed to be moved to a national park in Malawi because they were causing problems in the natural range. It was estimated that the herd had killed a couple of dozen people over the previous few years, they interfered with crop growing and destroyed buildings. The elephants were not wanted and the local residents had been forced to take action to try and stop the elephants from being a nuisance. Sadly this included laying out snares and poisoning the herd.
On the other hand the nature reserve was desperate to bring back elephants to its land. since it own herd had been wiped out by poachers 12 years earlier security had been beefed up with additional patrols and an electric fence surrounded the park. This helps to keep poacher our but also helps to keep the animals in the reserve and away from human habitation.
It seemed like a perfect solution. But as always there is always going to be someone who tries to override what looks like the best way forward. In this case during the operation of trans-locating the elephants a business man who lived 20 miles away from the villages suffering from the elephant nuisance took out an injunction to stop the trans-location on the basis of eco-tourists would not come to the area if it lost it’s elephants. Fortunately the safety and security of both villagers and elephants was eventually secured.
There’s lots of planning involved when you start to catch and move 6 or 7 ton animals. It’s a specialist job and needs specialist equipment. The Malawi ranger service didn’t have the resources needed and so called in outside help to do the task. It’s not cheap either moving elephants around the cost of the operation – at around £126,000 – was met by the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
The CAD people where hard at work in the series. Anyone who watches Ice Road Truckers will be familiar with the computer graphics that is used to hype up the dangers of crossing thin ice. In this programme there was a good selection of animations to highlight how dangerous it is for elephants when they have been tranquilized.
The film crew followed both the team in the air and also the ground team as they went out to capture the elephants. It not just a simple case of darting elephants as you come across them. The family groups had to be found and moved first because if the bull elephants had been the first to be trans-located they would have panicked and gone into a rage if they lost contact with the families.
It was all very interesting and highly informative. I even had a slight smile on my face and admiration for one bull elephant who refused to go down even after taking 3 dart loads of powerful tranquilizer in his rear end.
If you missed out on the opening episode head over to Channel 5 and catch up on with the on demand player. The series consists of 4 1 hour films and was produced by Windfall Films.
I’m looking forward to next weeks episode on how to move a couple of silvertip sharks from Australia to Dubai.
