The Heartache of Elephants
By Felicia Lowery
Copyright 2013
Reprinted from feliciainafrica.travellerspoint.com 08/12
After almost 8 weeks of travel in Africa I am home again in my very own sweet (hair-dryer hot) Tucson and have much to reflect on. While some of my blog readers may check out at this point, I still feel compelled to continue writing about my experiences on the Dark Continent and will post more photos as well.
My friend Patti refers to us both as “pathological optimists” and we are. I may have used this term in an earlier post. And indeed, when I read my first two blogs I see that they are brimming with good feelings about my fellow humans and the world at large. However, after experiencing day after day of post-apartheid racism (yes, I will have to amend my earlier comments on that), and witnessing the most grinding poverty unimaginable and then hearing stories of and seeing some of the faces of the horrific AIDS epidemic, I began to lose my faith in humanity. As we learned more about the Colonial history of southern Africa and the systematic pillaging of her resources, the extirpation of her mega-fauna and general fouling of that incredible beauteous Eden, connections were made, questions were asked, and the assumption made that as humans we are doing a terrible job, collectively, of managing our jewel of a planet, and it has always been so. It isn’t just Africa of course, people everywhere have been messing with other people and the planet at large since the beginning of time. Now, with so many of us having “gone forth, been fruitful and multiplied”, the destruction is on a scale that is simply hard to ignore. Was there any reason to believe it would ever get better? I didn’t see any immediately on the horizon.
When I learned that a “management technique” in some of the national parks of Africa was to “cull”, which of course is another word for kill, entire herds of elephants to curb the damage they do to delicate ecosystems when forcibly kept in areas too small for their nomadic natures, I didn’t want to believe it. I ignored that piece of information as long as I reasonably could.
My friend Patti refers to us both as “pathological optimists” and we are. I may have used this term in an earlier post. And indeed, when I read my first two blogs I see that they are brimming with good feelings about my fellow humans and the world at large. However, after experiencing day after day of post-apartheid racism (yes, I will have to amend my earlier comments on that), and witnessing the most grinding poverty unimaginable and then hearing stories of and seeing some of the faces of the horrific AIDS epidemic, I began to lose my faith in humanity. As we learned more about the Colonial history of southern Africa and the systematic pillaging of her resources, the extirpation of her mega-fauna and general fouling of that incredible beauteous Eden, connections were made, questions were asked, and the assumption made that as humans we are doing a terrible job, collectively, of managing our jewel of a planet, and it has always been so. It isn’t just Africa of course, people everywhere have been messing with other people and the planet at large since the beginning of time. Now, with so many of us having “gone forth, been fruitful and multiplied”, the destruction is on a scale that is simply hard to ignore. Was there any reason to believe it would ever get better? I didn’t see any immediately on the horizon.
When I learned that a “management technique” in some of the national parks of Africa was to “cull”, which of course is another word for kill, entire herds of elephants to curb the damage they do to delicate ecosystems when forcibly kept in areas too small for their nomadic natures, I didn’t want to believe it. I ignored that piece of information as long as I reasonably could.
Elephants live together in large matriarchal herds and boast the largest brains of living mammals, and have life spans equivalent to ours. They form complex intergenerational family groups, have subtle multi-layered communication techniques, and complex lives that rival the average human’s in my estimation. I can say that in many hours of watching over a thousand elephants, both individual males, small bachelor groups or larger mixed herds, I was able to see a large range of behaviors that reminded me of nothing so much as us. We saw teenage males sparring and large older bachelors standing alone and far away from the herd. An elderly and slow grandmother waited until the entire herd had drunk their fill at the watering hole until she took her turn, not unlike your own grandmother at Sunday dinner. We saw mothers standing steady over sleeping infants. We saw young elephants climbing over each other in play, making Isabella wistful for her brothers. We even got to watch a young elephant suckle from her mom, which was a special treat for the midwife/attachment parent in me (elephants nurse their young till around 4-5 years of age).
As we watched the Damara Land desert-adapted elephants, only one of two herds of elephants in Namibia who can live in low-water conditions, the topic of elephant impact on landscapes arose again. This time it was our guide Ken who mentioned the culling programs that throughout the last century various park-managers, policy makers, and rangers have initiated to address difficult situations. As I sat and watched these gentle creatures that were in turn watching us, something inside of me broke. I understand that as epic-wandering browsers of trees, that large elephant tribes can cause damage to the Mopani landscape they prefer and that this destruction can impact other animal species as well as the plant communities they depend on. I understand that with 8 billion humans on the planet, there doesn’t seem to be enough room for every single being who needs space. Because the fragile ecosystems have been pressured to the breaking point by burgeoning human populations and overgrazing of cattle and other domestic animals, the entire park system comprising mega fauna and prey species alike must be proactively managed to work for the benefit of all. Drought, disease, prey/predator balance, and impact on local farmers and villages all come into play when making management decisions. But surely there are solutions other than killing entire elephant herds?
As we watched the Damara Land desert-adapted elephants, only one of two herds of elephants in Namibia who can live in low-water conditions, the topic of elephant impact on landscapes arose again. This time it was our guide Ken who mentioned the culling programs that throughout the last century various park-managers, policy makers, and rangers have initiated to address difficult situations. As I sat and watched these gentle creatures that were in turn watching us, something inside of me broke. I understand that as epic-wandering browsers of trees, that large elephant tribes can cause damage to the Mopani landscape they prefer and that this destruction can impact other animal species as well as the plant communities they depend on. I understand that with 8 billion humans on the planet, there doesn’t seem to be enough room for every single being who needs space. Because the fragile ecosystems have been pressured to the breaking point by burgeoning human populations and overgrazing of cattle and other domestic animals, the entire park system comprising mega fauna and prey species alike must be proactively managed to work for the benefit of all. Drought, disease, prey/predator balance, and impact on local farmers and villages all come into play when making management decisions. But surely there are solutions other than killing entire elephant herds?
It has been explained to me, by several knowledgeable and caring local people, that this was not only necessary, but also the “kind” thing to do as you couldn’t kill only a few as the others know and remember and would suffer emotionally. Their tribal networks are not unlike ours. It would be like instigating a policy for human overpopulation and taking out grandma and one aunt and one child. Better to wipe out the whole lineage. As someone with a natural history/biology background, I understand all of the reasons, all of the arguments, I do. Additionally, I have been a student of philosophy from college and beyond. As anyone who took even the basic “101” class learns, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. This has been paraphrased in many ways through the years from Aristotle to the Christian New Testament to Spock on Star Trek but the basic sentiment remains the same. Every culture and even family has different views on this philosophy. A country such as China or India may well approve of sacrificing individual rights for the greater whole. A country such as the USA may fight to the bitter end for individual rights over the greater whole. I am not well versed enough on African cultures, as there are too many to even guess how this would be viewed. But I do wonder if it would ever be possible to have a world where we can all win? Elephants and humans, precious, all.
I cried sad, dribbly and silent tears for the rest of the day. Sometimes it’s just hard to be human. For the next two weeks Ken and Isabella did their best to “Help Felicia Find Her Optimism”. My plea was this: If we put the world’s smartest minds together in a room and gave them a little funding, we could solve the elephant ‘problem’, which of course if really a people problem. We debated. We did so passionately and tearfully. We wondered if our world is really doomed and if we humans haven’t spoiled our nest so much now that there is no turning back. We wondered about a lot of other problems too: the onward trend towards extinction of Wild Dogs, Rhino poaching, AIDS, corruption, politics, and poverty. In the end we decided that every single thing is connected. Humans, elephants, Baobab trees, Africa, America, Antarctica, Afrikaner, English, republican, democrat, you, me all of it.
The little bit of hope I come back to again and again, is that if we, each and every one of us, do what we can to make the world a better place Where We Are then all of the world’s problems may improve. It’s where I’m resting for now. I know that I’m too small on my own, to take on fixing the elephant situation, the legacy of South African racism and the grinding poverty of Africa. I have to wonder if those things are even mine to “fix”. But I can do something in Tucson in my own tiny sphere, touching animals, people and issues that share the small patch of earth I walk on every day. Hopefully I can still care without being buried in the world’s pain. It’s so very big that to take it in large doses will be either too painful or too numbing.
I found an unattributed quote on facebook that speaks to this tension between optimism and pessimism and I think I’m going to go with it:
The little bit of hope I come back to again and again, is that if we, each and every one of us, do what we can to make the world a better place Where We Are then all of the world’s problems may improve. It’s where I’m resting for now. I know that I’m too small on my own, to take on fixing the elephant situation, the legacy of South African racism and the grinding poverty of Africa. I have to wonder if those things are even mine to “fix”. But I can do something in Tucson in my own tiny sphere, touching animals, people and issues that share the small patch of earth I walk on every day. Hopefully I can still care without being buried in the world’s pain. It’s so very big that to take it in large doses will be either too painful or too numbing.
I found an unattributed quote on facebook that speaks to this tension between optimism and pessimism and I think I’m going to go with it:
There is no rational reason
To remain a pessimist
In a world full of so many miracles
To remain a pessimist
In a world full of so many miracles
Copyright 2013
Testing the comment box!
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ReplyDeleteAs a crazed animal lover myself, I am sad and dribbly now knowing that culling is even permitted much less carried out. Such beautiful wonderful creatures should have their space. I also find it hard to shake the sadnesses I hear about. Today I chatted with a goat and it was great for me...I hope she liked it, too!
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