Botswana has an elephant problem. The director of Nuremberg zoo weighs in on whether Germany could adopt some and where they could live.
April 4, 2024 8:14 pm CET
Botswana this week threatened to lump Germany with 20,000 excess elephants, as it struggles to combat a pachydermous overpopulation problem.
The president of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi, insisted he wasn’t joking about it, but what are the chances that tens of thousands of elephants could one day be stampeding through the Black Forest or the beer halls of Munich?
In short, it’s not very likely. Transporting tens of thousands of the giant animals to the other side of the world would be a tall order even for Noah. Also, expensive for all involved.
But but but … let’s say the elephants did end up in Germany — which originally triggered Botswana’s ire by moving to bring in a ban on trophy-hunting imports, thereby nullifying a popular population-reduction method — where would be the ideal spot for them to live?
We asked an expert, Nuremberg Zoo director Dag Encke, for some answers on the Botswana government’s conundrum and Germany’s elephant-hosting suitability.
“The problem is so big and complex that Mr. Masisi is upset — for good reasons — about the Western simplification of possible solutions, which would also be completely counterproductive,” Encke told POLITICO.
Encke said he understands Botswana’s “dilemma,” as the country is trying to both protect its wildlife and its communities which are affected by the overpopulation.
Banning the import of trophies, he said, would make “zero contribution to species protection, but only creates one’s own moral well-being,” adding that, “trophy hunting has become a highly efficient tool for international and particularly southern African species conservation.” He pointed out that the practice is also endorsed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
“There are an estimated 130,000 elephants living in Botswana,” Encke said. “But the ecological carrying capacity for the country is estimated at 60,000 animals.”
Germany would be doing Botswana a favor by taking them in. 20,000 at once might be a bit of a stretch as “there is no area big enough and suitable to keep that amount of animals.”
According to the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the minimum requirement for keeping one bull elephant alone, for instance, is 150 square meters of space.
Zoos and wildlife parks would be an option — just not for 20,000 animals, Encke said.
While some parts of Germany do enjoy a milder climate, it might not be a paradise for elephants, which usually roam freely in tropical forests or grassy savannahs.
“African elephants need winter accommodation with a minimum temperature of 15 degrees,” Encke explained. “Although they can be allowed outside in winter even when there is deep frost.”
“One would have to provide entire landscapes,” he said, citing the hilly Lüneburg Heath in Lower Saxony in northern Germany as an example, an area of woodland and many streams.
“But no matter where they put elephants in Germany, they would devour everything in sight and then it’s over,” said Encke, “That’s the reason Botswana’s president highlighted the fact that those animals need to run freely: to stress his country’s achievements.”
Getting the elephants halfway across the world then is “a question of money. Animal transport is well and precisely regulated internationally,” Encke said.
Special wildlife transporters make sure animals are transported accordingly: “There are containers in which the animals can be kept for longer periods of time.”
Where trophy hunting works well — as in without corruption — it could be a great contribution to species conservation as well as a great source of income for nature conservation, Encke said. Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa were good examples for how this could be done.
“We need to realize what the Botswanians achieve as a population, living with so many elephants,” Encke stressed. “In Germany, people are shitting themselves because of three wolves who were spotted in a city by accident once.”