Friday August 7th, 2009
Manzini, Swaziland

Pachyderm population control has long been a sensitive and emotional issue, with conservation authorities, scientists and environmentalists wracking their collective brains in an effort to find methods which are both financially viable and environmentally sound. Recent laparoscopic vasectomy procedures, performed on 7 elephant bulls in Swaziland’s Big Game Parks, may prove the answer to managing fast-growing elephant populations in smaller parks.

The advantages gained from going the vasectomy route are many and varied. The surgery is relatively non-invasive, and the process maintains biological diversity while greatly reducing the need for culling. This technique of surgical sterilisation is furthermore a tried and tested method of permanent contraception and, very importantly, it has the benefit of maintaining normal hormone levels in the targeted animals.

This latter aspect is essential, as it maintains the status quo within a population regarding the dominance of individuals, as well as their breeding and social behaviour. Vasectomised bulls still go into musth and, although sterile, continue to breed, thus maintaining their social status within the herd. Although vasectomies have been performed on elephants in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal prior to Swaziland, most of the operations have so far been experimental. This positions Big Game Parks as the first conservation authority to attempt this on as large a scale, and to successfully vasectomise all their dominant, breeding bulls.

Pioneering veterinary surgeons, led by Dr. Mark Stetter from Disney’s Animal Kingdom in the USA, worked jointly with Big Game Parks in order to pull off an operation reminiscent of something one would expect to see on Discovery Channel. “We have been collaborating with conservation authorities in Africa since 2001 to perfect our technique”, said Stetter, Director of Veterinary Services at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, “and this marks the culmination of more than a decade of intensive research and development”. “Vasectomy is a one-time procedure’, he continued, “and as it is flexible, it can be applied to a pre-selected number of bulls in order to determine a birth rate suited to a specific environment”.

With the theory now solidly in place, a team of a dozen-plus surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, game capture experts, researchers and crane operators arrived at Hlane Royal National Park to launch ‘Operation Jumbo’. I accompanied the ground crew, while Mick Reilly, Head of Conservation at Big Game Parks, took to the air in a small helicopter. Within a quarter of an hour, the call came in: ‘The bull is down!’, and within five minutes, we had bushwhacked our way to the area where the immobilised elephant lay.

Operations do not come more professional than this: a ground team cleared the bush, and 5 minutes later the elephant was suspended from the crane and having a harness fitted before it was flipped the right way up. A sterile operating table was set up on the crane truck and, while the surgeons had their scrubs fitted, the flanks of the elephant were scrubbed and prepped for surgery. Two 12cm incisions were made along its flanks (in front of the tubor coxae) and the surgical teams, fitted with virtual reality glasses, set to work.

A rigid laparoscope, fitted with a camera attachment and light, specially developed by Karl Storz for surgery on mega-vertebrates, was then inserted into the abdomen. This 1.5m long metal instrument allows surgeons to view the internal organs, clamp the deferent ducts and remove a 4-6cm sperm-carrying section. Once this is successfully accomplished, the external incisions are closed using equine suture material and stainless steel trace wire. A few minutes later, the antidote was applied and the first of the Big Game Park bulls lumbered to its feet, ready to return to the herd.

According to Mick, son of legendary conservationist Ted Reilly, “the vasectomy option probably offers the most practical and acceptable method of population management, specifically where smaller elephant populations are concerned. “Biodiversity management is a key issue, and it is important to understand that elephants have a significant impact on not only vegetation, but all related components”, said Reilly.

“The acacia nigrescence knob-thorn climax vegetation in Hlane Royal National Park, for example, has been carbon-dated at 300-500 years, and these ancient trees support the highest concentration of tree-nesting vultures on earth. The vultures, as well as a significant nesting colony of marabou storks, will be threatened by the elephants’ predilection for acacia bark, as will Swaziland’s sole population of critically endangered black rhino”, continued Reilly. “Once man takes a hand in nature through urban development and by confining areas with fences, it follows logically that he needs to manage said biodiversity accordingly”.

According to the conservation task team at Big Game Parks, they will continue to monitor the elephants closely in the years to come. “The full impact – and ultimate success ***or*** failure – of the operation is only likely to be quantifiable in four to five years from now due to the interval between calving in elephants”, stated Reilly. “However, I’m sure that in the long term this will assist not only Big Game Parks, but conservation authorities throughout Africa, in effectively managing the critical issues surrounding increasing elephant numbers”.

CONTACTS:
For more information on the BIG GAME PARKS Elephant Vasectomy initiative, contact Mike Richardson on TEL (26-841) 63011, ***or*** email him at marketing@biggameparks.org

IMAGES:
Free-use mages of the BIG GAME PARKS Elephant Vasectomy Project is available from Jacques Marais Media on TEL (27-21) 78 22 849, ***or*** email jmmedia@cybersmart.co.za

FURTHER INFORMATION:
Elephant population management is a complex issue, and the information in the above media release is specifically related to Swaziland. The information below, supplied by Mick Reilly of Big Game Parks, may be used to help contextualise relevant issues.

Population management in large elephant populations presents a totally different set of circumstances, and culling is likely to remain the most practical management option here. In instances similar to Swaziland, however (where we have smaller populations of elephants and the individuals which are all known) we feel the vasectomy option is likely to prove a practical and acceptable method of elephant population control.

Importantly, it is a once-off procedure – as opposed to the immuno-contraception option practiced in females – where annual boosters are applied to target animals with the associated helicopter disturbance. Added to this, if the selection of target animals is correctly done, one can achieve a substantially reduced recruitment rate, allowing the occasional calf to be born into the herds, which we believe to be an important component in the natural social dynamics of elephant herds. This is likely to happen from time to time due to the fact that while dominant bulls will control breeding behaviour, subordinate bulls may nonetheless occasionally ’sneak’ in a calf with the receptive cows.

Range expansion and translocation (which we have already employed), and culling are the other options available to conservation managers. Culling is offensive and unpleasant, and although we practise it extensively with common antelope species, we prefer to do live translocations where ever possible and consider culling to be our final option.

The massive cost of operations such as the recent elephant vasectomy is of course a major consideration. In this instance, the American surgeons and their South African counterparts provided much of their equipment, expertise and travel free of charge, and we are very thankful for this. Notwithstanding, the costs relating to accommodation, meals, the capture team and equipment, and the helicopter amounted to well over R100 000. Had it not been for the generosity of the veterinary team, the costs of undertaking this operation would have been prohibitive, and we are very grateful to them for their substantial contributions.

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