Elephant vasectomy

hcroze's picture
Wed, 2007-08-01 14:08 — hcroze

ATE's ever-vigilant Betsy Swart has come across a link to short video about an elephant vasectomy campaign. It seems that Disney Animal Kingdom vets are operating on bulls at South Africa's Welgevonden Game Reserve. Have a look at what the Orlando Sentinel has to report: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_lifestyle_animal/2007/07/disne... . (I couldn't get the video to play, perhaps mercifully; may be a problem of bandwidth.)

Whatever next? Why am I reminded of that bad old joke about the Elephant Circumciser ("pay's lousy, but you get good tips")?

HC

‹ Implementing CBOSS CBOSS -- Cell-Based Observational Sampling System ›

Huge cost, big headlines...

hcroze's picture
Wed, 2007-08-01 14:18 — hcroze

On a more serious note, Will Travers, CEO of the Born Free Foundation writes:

I have never seen anything so ridiculous in my life.

The vets and elephant experts amongst us will, I’m sure, have views about the actual procedure but the concept…

Why go for major surgery on bull elephants, performed in the bush (at huge cost) on a one-animal-at-a-time basis, in a genetically permanent way (all treated animals will no longer play a role in the genetics of their kind) when immunocontraception is far less invasive and creates interval breeding, thus maintaining genetic viability while controlling numbers.

By the way, when Welgevonden is described as a ‘big’ reserve…it is, in fact, about 33,000 hectares (that’s about 130 square miles) divided into 500 hectare private land parcels. This compares to the Kruger National Park which is 8,000 square miles. The reserve was established in 1993 and began importing imported 50 elephants (having none originally I believe) around 10 years ago. It now claims to have 74 (according to their website).

What is Disney up to? Seems to me more about getting headlines on the basis of what I believe to be some rather less than robust science.

Thoughts?

Just a PR exercise, but a cruel one

Wed, 2007-08-01 15:21 — Keith

There is obviously no conservation benefit in the vasectomy approach, as it would have no influence on population size. As we well know, a single bull can mate with many females, so as long as there is one male left un-"treated" in the population, the females will get pregnant and have babies. Vets like to knock down animals and do things to them (as do a FEW researchers) and zoos, who employ vets, like to (try to) show that they are serving conservation, instead of just making money from their animal exhibits. I suspect that a lot of people in the general public will be taken in by this PR stunt, while fewer might pause to question the value of such pointless, risky and -- in the event of complications -- cruel charades.

text on elephant (or more broadly wildlife conservation)

Wed, 2007-08-01 14:43 — Herman

Herman PRAGER

I wish I could respond to your very thoughtful post. I have to say I don't know enough to comment. I would like to ask, however, the above question (in the text). Can you recommend a good book which examines the issue of conservation strategies to protect elephants (good academic study with good bibliography)?

Many thanks.

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