ELEPHANTS – Majestic icons of Africa

« Dr Ian John Whyte is an independent environmental consultant who retired from SANParks in 2007. He was previously engaged in full-time wildlife research in Kruger National Park from 1970-2007. At the time of retirement, he was responsible for the coordination of all research projects pertaining to elephant, buffalo and other large herbivores and rare antelope. He is a member of the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission’s African Elephant Specialist Group. He has co-authored two field guides to the birds of the Kruger National Park and is in the process of publishing a book about his life and work in KNP.

Elephants pose many dilemmas to managers of African wildlife areas, but it must be remembered that there is also much good that elephants effect in an ecosystem. Elephants facilitate natural processes that aid the existence and survival of many species in the ecosystems they occupy. They push over and strip bark from trees, which